The Legend Hidden in the Blood
by dragonblade3200
Summary: When the old blood flows power manifests. And it manifest in Naruto. But can he handle the power to absorbe any Kekkei Genkai he comes into contact with? Or will it drive him beyond the brink of Madness.
1. Chapter 1

Ok, to start I want to say that this is an incomplete story, though I do have several chapters already done: like six more. I wouldn't mind it if someone adopted this, caus I have a billion little ideas and I don't really write them out except for the backgrounds. If someone wants it or wishes to enquire about anyother ideas shoot me a message and I'll just give the stuff I made up for it to you.

Universal Story Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or Naruto: Shippuden or any other unnamed but already copyrighted material herein.

Chapter 1: In the Blood

"Bastard!" yelled Naruto, holding his friend in his arms as he slowly faded from conciseness, hundreds of needles sticking from his legs and arms and, more importantly, his neck, "Why? Why did you do it?"

"How the hell should I know…" he gasped out, looking on his blond friend with his Sharingan eyes. "My legs just moved on their own." And with that he passed out, never seeing the other boy's eyes turn a dark red.

This was the Battle of the Bridge, as it would later be known, where Uzumaki Naruto unlocked a power long forgotten… a power from a time of legends.

It had started as a simple C-Ranked Mission, meaning the most danger there would be would be from bandits and petty thugs, a mission that had been given to three rookie Shinobi, Genin, and their teacher. However it didn't take long for the group of four Shinobi to learn that their client had lied to them. Right from the start of things they had been attacked by Shinobi, two Chuunin brothers who felt confident enough in their abilities to attack the group not an hour out from Konoha, the greatest of the Shinobi Villages.

Attacking with a poisoned chain and claw combo they tried to attacked the man, Tazuna, injuring one of the Genin, Uzumaki Naruto, in the process. The three students refused to turn back though, mostly out of pride, and their teacher, believing he could protect them from any harm, agreed. While in itself not the smartest decision the man had made, he would have been right, had it only been Chuunin ranked Shinobi. All too soon did they meet the error of their ways; the Demon of the Bloody Mist Village, Momochi Zabuza.

Although the small team had one of the most infamous Shinobi ever produced by Konoha, Hatake Kakashi, leading them the fight that ensured was brutal and nearly ended when Copy-Nin Kakashi, as he was known, was captured by Zabuza. If not for the quick thinking and skill of Uzumaki Naruto and Uchiha Sasuke the day might have been lost. But luck was with them and they managed to free Kakashi, who in turn was able to defeat Zabuza.

Before the final strike could land though the body was immobilized and taken by a hidden partner. Over the course of the next week the three Genin trained, waiting for their teacher to heal and preparing for another fight with Zabuza and his partner, one that insured, seven days after their first fight. The fight had started out on a positive, Sasuke was fighting with Zabuza's partner, Kakashi with Zabuza, and Haruno Sakura was guarding the client. Naruto, meanwhile, was rescuing the client's family and then rushed to the aide of Sasuke.

Sasuke, while doing well, had the unfortunate luck to be fighting a Shinobi with a Kekkei Genkai, one that granted the young girl power over water and ice. All too soon he was fighting a losing battle, surrounded and outclassed in terms of speed. Unfortunately even the arrival of Naruto their plight seemed impossible to overcome, that is, until Sasuke awoke the power of his clan, the fabled Sharingan. For a short time it seemed that the doejutsu would tip things in their favor, only for Haku to trick them.

Focusing her attack on a weakened Naruto, Haku knew either Sasuke would protect the boy, and become the victim himself or Naruto would be taken out, either way leaving her with one opponent. Sasuke did indeed take the attack, and looked upon Naruto, his Sharingan still active.

It was now, in this moment of sadness and anger and grief that Naruto awoke his hidden power his body and, though Sasuke did not see it, his eyes burned with the might in the Sharingan in them.

"Tell me," asked Haku standing and walking to one of her ice mirrors after seeing the boy's body seemingly spasm in grief, "Is this the first time you've lost a comrade in battle? This is the way Shinobi!"

"Shut up." He said in a near whisper.

"He died to protect you!"

"I said SHUT UP! I WONT FORGIVE YOU!" and with that the boy looked up, showing the same red and black eyes as Sasuke, only one tomoe around each of the pupils. Jumping towards his enemy he attacked, throwing a barrage of punches that were blocked.

'_Dammit! They were both Uchiha? What are the odds of them both activating the Sharingan at the same time?'_ the girl thought to herself, finding it increasingly hard to keep up with the boy, _"The Hyoton used too much of my chakra, I can't keep up with him much longer…'_ Blocking another strike Haku caught Naruto's hand in her own. Watching the boy suddenly spasm she took the opportunity to kick him, sending the boy back.

They had moved quite a ways from Sasuke's body by this point, and were nearer to Sakura and Tazuna, the faint sound of Kakashi and Zabuza talking in the background. "Fine then, if I cannot defeat you Naruto, then I will take the bridge builder and leave."

Naruto sat there, struggling to his feet, and watched as the Hunter nin made hand signs, everything seemed to slow for a second and his attention split between processing the words and looking at the hand seals, _'Tazuna?… but… She's going after Sakura!'_ even with the Sharingan though he was too slow. He was up and running for Sakura as soon as the other girl finished the last hand sign, "Hyoton: Makyo Hyoyari." With that the water, which covered the ground by now, started exploding upwards into jagged spikes, racing towards Sakura and Tazuna faster than Naruto.

Running the boy followed his instincts and reached out to them in a desperate motion. It was to everyone's surprise when the ice went around the duo, rather than through them. Stopping Naruto looked down at his hands before glaring up at Haku again, who had fallen to one knee.

'_I, I've failed you Zabuza-Sama.'_ "Please… before you kill me," she began to ask, the boy looking up at her strangely, "who are you? You are not from my clan and no one else could command ice like you just did…"

Walking up to her Naruto started talking, "My name is Uzumaki Naruto! I am a Shinobi of Konoha! As a Shinobi, it's my job to defend the Leaf Village from any who oppose it and to avenge the deaths of my comrades." Here he started to cry and yelled at the girl, "But, killing you won't bring Sasuke back to life!"

Hearing this Sakura looked up, eyes wide and tears immediately started streaming down her face, "Naruto…" she whispered, "Tazuna… come on, we need to get away from the fight and I-" She stopped here, choking on her words.

Tazuna looked at the girl, feeling bad that he had gotten any of them into this mess. "I got it, come on."

"You must kill me!" she insisted, "I am a useless to Zabuza-sama, not worthy of being used. If you do not kill me then what purpose do I serve?"

"No!" he said in a savage voice, "There will be no more bloodshed today, not if I can help it!" In the background Zabuza and Kakashi's conversation died out completely.

"Serving and helping Zabuza is my only purpose in life, without him I would be nothing, starving and dying on the streets. If you will not kill me then I have only one other option." She said sadly, listening as the chirping of birds filled the air. "Before I die though, you should know you're a very special person Naruto… no one else would have been able to copy two Kekkei Genkai's." And with that she formed an ice mirror, jumping towards the other fight on the bridge.

Naruto couldn't stop her, only rush to see the damage. For the first time since the fight had started he saw her face, the mask having been jarred loose from the force of Kakashi's attack. _'But, but she's the one I met the other day!'_ he thought to himself, watching as Zabuza tried to attack Kakashi again, nearly cutting through Haku's body to do so, only to have Kakashi dodge bringing the girl with him.

"You bastard!" yelled the young Genin, "How could you even think about cutting through Haku like that, like she was some kind of tool for you to use!"

"Shut it kid! Haku knew her purpose and died how she wanted to." He said as he stared Kakashi down, "That's all Shinobi are; tools. We fight and we kill wherever the highest bidder points us to."

"How right you are Mr. Momochi, how oh so right you are!" came a greasy voice from the end of the bridge. When they turned to look, all save Kakashi, they saw a short man standing in front of a group of at least a hundred men, all carrying weapons of some sort, whether it be a simple sword or a giant scythe. "Well, at least that one got what was coming." He said point to Haku's body, "Squeezed my arm till it broke."

"Gato, what's the meaning of this?" asked the Demon,

"Well, you see there's been a change of plans. Really I had been planning to do this from the beginning. Did you _really_ believe I was going to pay you twenty million Ryo for a simple bridge builder?"

"Why you!" yelled Naruto, still angry and sad at Haku's death.

"Enough Naruto!" was Kakashi, "Look at their numbers, you wouldn't stand a chance. Well Zabuza, looks like our fight if done and I even left you an arm!"

"What! No, this guy's still _my_ enemy! That girl there, she died for you, she would have done anything for you. She died because she cared about you, she said she would do anything for you because you were the only reason she wasn't dead or dying on the streets! She cared for you an all you could think about is using her! How can you live with yourself? Huh?" Naruto himself was crying now, "How can you just stay so cold like that? Is this what a Shinobi is, a tool? If I get to be as strong as you is this what I'll become? She gave up her life for you, without a dream of her own! She loved you that much…"

"Enough kid!" was all he said, looking anyplace but at Naruto, "You need say no more. It pained her to fight you, she was too kind." Turning he looked right at Naruto, taking in his eyes, the Sharingan still blazing, "Yeah kid… you may be right. A Shinobi's still a human and… even I'm not an emotionless tool. I loved her too kid, but helping me's what made her happy, so I did all that I could, so she could help me…I guess I only have one thing left before the day is done."

With those words he lifted up his sword with his one good arm and charged right into Gato's men.

"Come here Naruto. Watch him; this is how a Shinobi lives."

Together the two of them watched Zabuza as he carved a path through the men, killing all of them in his way, till he finally decapitated Gato himself. He left none living.

About half way through Naruto heard something that made him turn, "Sasuke!"

"He made it Naruto!" yelled Sakura, looking up at the boy briefly, "Oh Sasuke, I'm so happy!"

"Hehe, well Kakashi-sensei, it looks like we all made it!" he said looking up at the silver haired Jounin, his left eye covered once more. Under his mask he was smiling, until he looked down at Naruto.

"Naruto? What happened to your eyes?" he asked worriedly, leaning down to look at them closer, not believing what he was seeing, "Naruto, you… do you have any goggles or sun glasses?" he said quickly.

"Huh? Yeah, I got my Goggles in my pack here." And with that he reached around inside his kunai pack pulling out a pair of goggles he hadn't worn in nearly two months.

"Um, put them on and… do you usually carry useless stuff in your weapon's holster? No, never mind just put them on."

Mumbling to himself about strange sensei's he asked the man, "What's the big deal? My eyesight's perfect!"

Looking the boy over he sighed when he couldn't see the eyes themselves, "Well it's not every day that someone develops a bloodline that belongs to another clan, especially when that clan is the Uchiha."

"The Uchiha, you mean Sasuke's clan? But, what do you mean?" he asked, confused.

Looking down at the boy he told him, "Naruto, I believe you have a bloodline, a very powerful and dangerous one… one that I have seen in only one other person before." And then it began to snow.

-two weeks later

Naruto sat before a grave, looking down at the simple wooden cross. Around the top of it was Haku's scarf, at the base her mask sat beside a bowl of offerings. Behind him stood Kakashi and Sakura, Sasuke was still recovering from both the death like state and chakra exhaustion.

"Kakashi-sensei?" asked the pink haired girl, "Is what Haku believed true, are we just tools… I know that, in the end, even Zabuza said we are humans, but… What if they were right from the beginning?"

The silver haired jonin sighed, "Well, yes and no. We are human, but a shinobi's job is to become a tool for the village above all else. That's true even for Konoha."

With that they all just sat there in quiet, even Naruto had nothing so say.

"Well, I'm going to check on Sasuke-kun. Are you coming Naruto?"

Looking up at her through the goggles he smiled, "No thanks Sakura-chan, I'm going to stay here for a little while longer."

"Oh, all right." And with that she was gone.

Long minutes went by before Kakashi turned to leave, "So are you just going to ignore this sensei?" asked the blond, causing his teacher to stop in place, "Well? It's been two weeks, the first two days after the bridge you looked at my eyes and did a few medical jutsu and gave me a few things to practice, but since then you haven't said a word to me, choosing to read that book of yours instead." Standing up the boy took off his goggles and stared at the jounin, the Sharingan blazing in his eyes, "Well? What do you know, Why can't I turn them off, why do I have a Sharingan when _you_ said I have no Uchiha's in my family history? For that matter why do I have Haku's?"

"So," Kakashi responded in a disinterested voice, "You still haven't been able to turn them off." It was a statement, not a question, "And what about the other one, what were you able to do with that one?"

Glad that he at least got the man to talk with him, he answered, "Well I did the different exercises you told me to do, from hardest to easiest and well… I was able to control water pretty well, though I did have to concentrate with hand seals to do it. As for the ice part I was… well for lack of a better term, less than bad. I mean I froze it, mostly, but it took a lot of concentration to do it without a justu."

"And the only person we knew who could have taught you is dead. Well, go on. What about the Sharingan exercises?"

At this Naruto's eyes narrowed, "Well, I will admit it I can see a change, but it's so small that I might not have noticed it otherwise. But my fights with my clones go on longer, went I move fast I was able to see things out of the corner of my eyes I would have missed, and I was able to see through my regular clones like they weren't even there. Hell, the fact that I was able to make clones speaks for itself."

Kakashi shook his head at that last part, "No, in order for a person's ability in Genjustu to increase because of the Sharingan it must be there in the first place. Most likely it was the tree climbing exercise I had you do. Now that you're _able_ to use less chakra the clones are making it."

"Well what about my Transformation jutsu?" he asked with a small frown, "That's a Genjutsu, right?" this time the man laughed.

"Naruto, I don't know where you learned what you've been calling the Transformation jutsu, but the technique you've been using is call the Shape Shifting Jutsu. It allows you to actually transform into something, rather than into an illusion of something. Since you've been on my team you haven't used a single Genjustu. Sakura and Sasuke haven't noticed because they aren't trained to spot it yet.

"As to why you barely notice the change with the Sharingan is twofold: First, because you have a single Tomoe in each eye, meaning it is the lowest of the lows as far as that bloodline is concerned." Hearing this actually made Naruto's shoulders sulk a bit, "Second is because how strongly you have the bloodline, which is very weak. As of right now, if I were to compare your eyes to Sasuke's his are probably twice as good, maybe even better." And the shoulders fell the rest of the way.

"Don't feel bad Naruto, it's not because of anything with you, Sasuke's eyes are very strong compared to the other Uchiha's were. When I first got this eye of mine it was at the point you are now, and that was with two Tomoe. But, just as will happen with you and Sasuke both, the more I used the eye the better it became, and each new Tomoe will simply multiply that progress."

Naruto just sat there and thought about what his sensei told him, "So, sensei, since you're like me, and can't turn it off…"

"Nope," he said, nodding, "I always have the eye active but it's not training my eye, only if it's actually _using_ it. As for the big question though," he started, getting the younger boy to look up eager to know, "you have a Kekkei Genkai of your own. One that I have only seen in a single person. I don't know the name of it but it grants the ability to copy the powers of others. I believe you have it weaker than anyone in your family history ever has."

"HEY!" Naruto yelled, getting a chuckle from the other man.

"Oh, don't worry, I doubt being able to copy bloodlines, even if it's a weak version of the ability, is a bad thing. And I want to help you… at a price." He ended evilly.

His eyes narrowing down to slits, the boy asked, "What price?" more afraid to hear it than anything.

Crouching down to be eye level with the boy Kakashi spoke, "Here's the deal, I'll keep your secret from everyone, even the Hokage, and I'll help you master your bloodline and any others you might pick up. My price is that you _must_ tell me everything you can figure out about the bloodlines and let me monitor your progression with each one. Oh, and you have to tell me whenever you get a new one."

To himself Naruto couldn't help but think the man seemed awfully excited about all of this, "So what's in it for you?" he asked suspiciously.

"Well, once we gather enough information I want to publish the research." The man said bluntly, "With this eye of mine I'm living proof that bloodline theft is possible, in fact I've done much research on the subject myself on behalf of the Hokage. With the data you can help provide we can take another step forward into bloodlines. Clans very rarely part with information on their Kekkei Genkai, with you we can potentially bypass them."

Looking at the man he didn't _know_ what to think, _'It doesn't seem like that bad of a deal… why not? He is my senei.'_

"Deal!" he said, putting an arm out to Kakashi, who grasped it with an evil smile, knowing exactly what was going to happen.

As soon as their skin met Naruto started to spasm, Kakashi holding on for the full two seconds as it happened. Listening to Naruto's explanation of the battle he realized that when Naruto gained the bloodlines, by touching the bloodline user, he had a spasm. That would be the first thing he would show Naruto, as it could easily get him killed.

"What. The. HELL!" he said, immediately jumping into Kakashi's face, "What was that?"

"Well, that would be you gaining another bloodline." He said casually, "You see, when you told me about the fight I connected some dots. You yourself mentioned that you were, let's see: _'Shaking with anger'_ when you thought Sasuke was dead, the only point when you could have stolen it. Then, when you were fighting Haku and she caught a punch, you said you suddenly started shaking for no reason. That would have been when you took her bloodline. It's when you touch someone. Just now I touched you because I wanted to test my theory and I felt that you would benefit from my bloodline."

"You got a Kekkei Genkai? What is it?" he asked eagerly, showing more emotion than he had in the past two weeks.

'_Was starting to worry about the brat for a few days there.'_ "Yes, I have bloodline, a minor one, but still. It's called the Jinton or Swift Release! It lets- hey, why are you laughing?" indeed the boy was laughing, rolling on the ground because of the name, something he let Kakashi know at great lengths.

"Everyone's a critic."

It was later that night when Naruto snuck out of the small house by the sea, making his way down to the docks to sit and think for a while. Looking up at the nights sky he couldn't help but remember that this was their last night here. _'The skies are never this beautiful in Konoha.' _ Indeed Konoha had fallen prey to technology in the past fifty years, the roads lit by electric lights that made the whole village glow. It had the unfortunate side effect of blocking out the stars.

Right now the boy wanted to think, try and get everything in his head straightened out. _'Well, for starters I got a bloodline!'_ Yes, he did. One that was very powerful, giving him the ability to steal other bloodlines. Already he had three, the Sharingan, the Hyoton, and the Jinton, which was pretty cool, despite the name.

The Swift Release, he preferred Jinton, was named by Kakashi's father, a powerful man who first discovered the bloodline. It granted the user heightened reflexes and reaction time by increasing the electric pulses in the body and then decreasing wind resistance around them. It also gave the possessor a natural lightning Affinity. Kakashi was amazingly aided by it, saying it let his body react better to the Sharingan, so he could keep up with his own eye.

The Hyoton or Ice release, was an alternative element, combing Wind and Water to form Ice. The fact that it granted an amazing tolerance to cold and a natural _water_ affinity was just a bonus. Well, that's what Zabuza had said before he left, staying a full week after Haku's death to heal up a little.

Then there was the Sharingan. According to Kakashi it would get stronger the more he used it, eventually getting to the state that the copy nin himself had it at. Increased eyesight, copying and memorization abilities, the power to see chakra and see though genjutsu, and lastly a time slowdown, letting him see things in slow motion basically. It was in its weakest form right now and pretty weak at that, he barely noticed anything at all.

Unfortunately his _naturally _occurring bloodline seemed to be weak too, as he couldn't turn off the Sharingan. If Kakashi was right then he would be unable to turn off any of his bloodlines, or at least the ones that turn on and off. This wouldn't have been a problem if it weren't for the fact that Konoha was in love with its bloodlines and nearly every clan possessed one. Within two months he would be talking to bugs and dogs and seeing through walls and who knows what else, since the clans never talked about exactly WHAT their bloodlines were.

It was all so confusing and in addition to all this he would have to start playing guinea pig for Kakashi, who wanted to publish literature about bloodlines for some odd reason.

"You know what, fuck it all! I'm gunnna use this! Yeah, I'll show them I'm the greatest Shinobi who ever lived! I'll gather as many bloodlines as I can and train them all. That's it, from the minute I get home I start training, I can use water, ice, and lightning now so I'll train with them all, and find some chakra techniques like the one sensei showed us for training! The more I use the Sharingan the better it gets so I'll just start training all the time, a thousand clones a day to get that and the Jinton stronger. It's not that I can't turn them off, it's that I'm able to always keep them on!"

Quieter, to himself he whispered, "And I'll do it all for you Haku, for you, Oji-san, Iruka, and Ayame and old man Teuchi too! Believe it, because that's my ninja way, _my_ Way of the Shinobi!"

And with that Naruto stood up and walked to the beach, trying to remember the Kata's they had been taught in the Academy.


	2. Chapter 2

Smiling, Naruto turned his back on the villagers from Wave and started walking down the bridge, his team waiting a few yards away while he said his goodbyes.

"Geez, Naruto-baka, take long enough?" was the pink haired one as she glared at Naruto, then turning and smiling, "Oh, Sasuke-kun, do you want to get lunch after we get back?"

"No." was all he said, walking a little faster so he was next to Kakashi.

Naruto, always eager to try and please Sakura though, "Um, I'll take you out to lunch Sakura-chan!" he said in a hopeful tone, not quite as cheerful as he was before the mission had started.

Sakura though just glared at the boy, eyeing his clothing distastefully, "Feh, Naruto-baka! What makes you think I'd go out with you?"

"Um, because I'm so awesome and unbearably cute?" he asked with a big smile.

"Naruto! Unbearable is right!" and with that he struck the boy atop his head, making him noticeably shutter with what Sakura took to be pain. _'I hope I didn't hurt him too much.'_ She thought to herself.

Kakashi though saw that it wasn't from pain, it was Naruto stealing a bloodline… _'From Sakura though?'_ "Say, Sakura, does your family have bloodline by any chance? I know the Haruno aren't a clan yet, but still." This got everyone's attention, causing the two boys in the group to stop and stare at her, "Come on, keep up the pace you two! Well?" turning his eye onto the cherry blossom.

The girl just blushed a little, "Isn't that a little personal Kaka-sensei? I mean I may not be from a clan, but Konoha made Bloodline Privacy a big law."

Naruto looked confused here, "Um, Sakura-chan, what's Bloodline Privacy?" he asked, earning a glare from the pink haired girl.

Laughing Kakashi tells her to go on, "Well, with Sasuke's bloodline and Haku I guess we can all use a little reminder on bloodlines.

"Baka! Pay more attention the next time a teacher lectures." And with that the girl took on as teaching tone, practically reading it from a book as she walked, "Bloodline Privacy and Bloodline Discrimination, two of the major issues in the Shinobi world, and with plenty of blood spilt over it. Bloodline Privacy is a revolutionary idea adopted into place during the first ninety days of the Yondaime Hokage's rule, one that has never been achieved in any of the other Hidden Villages and one of the only open laws that has never been changed since being adopted into law.

"The law states that all people have the right to a bloodline without fear or prejudice while in Konoha and Hi no Kuni. Furthermore this law also protects the rights of those with a bloodline, allowing them to keep secret not only the abilities of a bloodline, but the existence of it as well. Not even the Hokage is allowed to _force_ a person to divulge the existence of a bloodline or anything about said bloodline. None of the Clans of Konoha have ever been willing to alter this law, though there are only two clans that openly have a bloodline limit; the Uchiha and the Hyuga."

"Hand in hand with Bloodline Privacy is the issue of Bloodline Discrimination. Bloodline Discrimination is simply that, discriminating against a person or persons (a clan) with a bloodline limit, whether out of fear, jealousy, or ignorance of the bloodline's. This is a major issue in the Hidden Village of Kiri and the surrounding lands of Mizu no Kuni, where civil war has been started over the right for those with bloodline limits to live. Ironically though Kiri does _not_ forbid bloodline holders from serving in its Shinobi forces."

"Very good Sakura!" said her sensei, turning a page on his little orange friend, "Now with that said I am not _ordering_ you to tell me, I'm just interested, that's all."

Looking over at Naruto she raised her fist to the boy, "If you tell _anyone_ this, even Iruka-sensei!" and with that she shook her fist once more and told them, "Yes, on my mother's side of the family. It's called Shikiri Omoi (Mind Partition). Basically it lets me use both sides of my brain at the same time, either side able to think independently of the other. It's also because of this that my family tends to develop certain… quirks." She whispered this last part, though Kakashi heard and immediately understood.

"Sakura… do you have a split personality?" he asked a little surprised and worried for his other student.

"Maa, what girl doesn't Kakashi-sensei?" asked the goggled blond with a laugh, getting another hit on the head. Internally, his teacher agreed.

"Naruto-baka!" Huffing she crossed her arms and looked to the side, "I might have one, but the development of personalities is a sign of growing strength. The more personalities there are the more ways my attention can be split. Not only that but they can also work on my chakra control while I do other things or help me do multiple things with my chakra all at once."

"Hn… That actually sounds pretty useful." This was Sasuke, who was looking at the girl in a new light it seemed, "If you won't have a problem with control then why don't you train up your reserves?" he asked in a curious voice.

"Um, well… I, I mean." _'CHA! We were so busy with loving YOU!'_

Kakashi cut the girl off, stalling her embarrassment "Hmm, now that's not a bad idea Sasuke. When we get back to Konoha I'm going to start upping all of your training. Sakura, we need to raise your reserves quite a bit, and _while_ we do that I guess I can teach you a few ninjutsu. After you get a few of the basics I'll start you on with chakra sensing, medical jutsu, and genjutsu, since they are the most precise of all jutsu. Sasuke, I see no reason why we couldn't start you on some elemental training. I checked your elements while you were resting last week, do you know what I found?" seeing the boy, utterly interested and shaking his head, he answered, "Fire and Lightning. You have no _idea_ how rare it is to find someone with multiple elements at your age. Perhaps, if you train hard enough I will show you and Naruto my signature technique." Seeing the boy smile he turned his attention to Naruto.

The boy was smiling as well, thinking about what kind of technique it would be, "As for you Naruto, I will be starting on some elemental training for you as well, though personally I believe you're a close quarters specialist with a good chance at becoming a ninjutsu specialist as well." Seeing the boy frown he went on before he could be interrupted, "What I mean is you go for Taijutsu and supplementary jutsu, such as your Shadow Clones. Hence, I'm going to be carting your ass all over the place, meeting lots of people to try and teach you different tricks that I don't know." Fixing the boy with a hard look he made sure the brat understood what he was really saying, 'I'm going to put you into contact with a bunch of people I think have bloodlines and maybe they can teach you a trick or two while they're at it, capiche?'

Sweating a little at the hard look he nodded his head, "Sound cool! Heheh."

Smiling behind his mask the man pulled his book out, "Good, because the Chuunin Exams are in four and a half months. If you all train up good then I plan on entering you. It would be the first time in five years that a rookie team would be entered." And with that he picked up his pace, starting to run back to Konoha, "Come on now, Konoha's only a day's travel as the Shinobi runs."

And so their training began.

Kakashi was right, it was only a day's run back to the village, though by the end of it his students were all exhausted, Sakura practically dead on one end while Naruto was simply hard on breath and sore. Looking down on them as they rested outside the gate he started speaking; "Now you all need to work on your endurance while we train, though I will be the one doing it you need to do more. You all need to build up stamina on you your own, though Sakura, as an order you are no longer allowed to diet." Seeing the angry look she was shooting him he decided on the tough love approach to things.

Leaking a little killing intent he spoke once more, "You WILL stop dieting, or else you WILL die! This is not a game Haruno; you are a kunoichi of Konoha now. You will not diet and you will start eating regular meals. I had hoped you would realize how close to utter exhaustion you are right now, it's because your body doesn't have enough energy! What happens they when you are in the middle of a life or death battle and you suddenly find you don't have the strength to match your enemy? You die! Then Sasuke dies, and then Naruto, and after that there's only me here to avenge your death, destroy your bodies, and tell your parents that she just. Wasn't. Good. Enough!"

As he had spoke his killing intent slowly ebbed away, a little trick he had learned. As it ebbs away emphasize what you're saying and it will hit home all the more.

Seeing the girl nod her head he turned away, "Tomorrow I want you all at the usual meeting spot by ten, not a minute later, we won't be doing any missions until the end of the first month training. After that we'll try and do a few C-rank missions a month." And, with a bamf and some smoke he was gone.

To the Uchiha and pink haired girl it was nothing, they just got up, slowly, and started to leave. To Naruto though it was something else. As the man made the one hand seal for the jutsu everything seemed to slow down, he could see how the chakra was molded, and as the man disappeared he knew, he had just experienced a very special thing. He had just copied a jutsu!

Stopping he thought about it, the hand seal was right there in the front of his mind, the way he had to move the chakra, it was like he had been doing it for years. Standing up a grin split his face, "Shunshin!" and he moved faster than he ever had in his life, heading for a building just inside the village. For him it was more amazing than for anyone who didn't have the Sharingan. He could see where he was going, everything having slowed down for him, and he had no doubt he could even change course if he needed too. Landing he looked around to gain his bearings before vanishing into a puff of smoke once more.

While he moved across the village to his apartment he started thinking, mainly about what Kakashi had said earlier about his fighting style. _'Kakashi-sensei is right, I DO like to get up and close with my opponents. Shadow clones only make it easier… well, now I have two jutsu to help me there. I can create clones in the thousands and now I can shunshin! All I got to do is come up with some strategies to use it in a fight! And soon I'll have every bloodline in Konoha!'_

The laugh he let out would have made Orochimaru proud.

Landing in front of his building he pulled out his keys to get into his house, while another part of his mind was thinking about the technique a mile a minute. It was one of the worst parts of town, bordering the former Uchiha district. Due to the stigma surrounding the place it was no longer a nice neighborhood, the far west side being the only other real slum in Konoha. The building in question was actually holding together better than most others in the area, mainly due to the fact that a number of Chuunin, Genin, and supposedly even an ANBU lived in it.

Entering the building he turned, his door being the first on the right. Putting his key in he learned that it no longer worked. Pulling it out he did like any normal person would and flipped it over, thinking it would help only to have it get stuck again.

With a loud curse he got down on his knees, trying to see if there was anything jammed in the lock. From behind him he could hear the landlady's door open slowly. Turning around he saw her sitting there in an old flannel night gown, one of her larger cats sitting on her lap glaring at him. Now that he saw them together he had to admit, they both had the same flat face.

"_Well_, decided to come back have you?" she asked with a superior smirk on her flat face, "That's all no use, I had the lock's changed two days ago."

Standing up he looked at her, a part of him wondering if she was crazy, "And why'd you do that ya old bat!" he yelled, earning a scowl from the old woman.

"Well," she began, standing up and grabbing a wooden cane so she could stalk over to him, "I wouldn't have, but you never paid your rent… Or did you forget it was due on the fifteenth?"

"Oi!" he exclaimed indigently, "I've been out on a mission and rent was only due a few days ago!"

Her glare hardened, "Not THIS month's rent, LAST MONTH'S! You left on that mission three weeks ago and you were already a week late with my money! You're just luck I have all your stuff still! If you were just a civilian I would have sold it already, but seeing as you're a _Shinobi_ I have no claim over it. It's all in the basement, sealed into a scroll by one of the other tenants. Get it and get out before I call the boys down to kick yer ass!"

Scowling, the boy walked the end of the hall to a door under the stairs. Quickly finding the scroll he left, being watched by the woman as if he were a criminal.

Several shunshin's later and he was in a nice neighborhood, with several two story apartments, the yards fenced off and filled with trees and flowers of all kinds. Walking up to one of the houses, glad that Kakashi had shown everyone where they each lived, he knocked on the door, waiting for an answer.

It didn't take long before his pink haired teammate answered the door, looking surprised at seeing him, "Naruto? What's going on? You're not here to ask me out again are you?"

"Hiya Sakura-chan! Um, well, no." this actually seemed to put her at ease a little, "Well I kinda got kicked out of my apartment! I was wondering if it would be alright if I could sleep with you. Um, so can I?" Only too late did he realize what he had said wrong before the girl punched him off the porch and slammed the door.

Half an hour later he sat up, clutching a black and blue eye, "That could have gone better." He said as he tried touching the bruise, "Ow!"

Once again taking off the boy tried to remember exactly where the other two lived before heading off towards Sasuke's apartment on the western side of the village.

Sasuke, much like Naruto, lived on the edge of one of the abandoned districts of Konoha. Unlike the Uchiha district though it wasn't the people who once lived there that made the area abandoned, save from a few of the homeless. For about a mile on the northwestern edge of the village no one lived because that is where the Kyuubi had been coming from all those years ago. During the attack people had fled the district in fear of the fox. Afterwards though, when they returned, they could still feel its hate, and animals started to act strangely, attacking where they wouldn't before, causing people to flee the newly built district. When Shinobi had been sent in they discovered it was the Kyuubi's left over chakra, and it was all sealed away, but the damage was done and people refused to live there anymore.

Walking up the stairs to the ratty apartment building he could hear the sounds of an action movie from one apartment and saw someone training in another. Getting to Sasuke's floor he could clearly smell someone smoking, the sound of two people making love in another room. Knocking on the Uchiha's door he almost wished the boy wouldn't answer.

Unfortunately he did, staring at the boy flatly. "What is it?" he asked, eye twitching as the woman's euphoric screams hit a climax.

"Hey, Sasuke, were friends right?" he asked with a real shit faced grin plastered in place, getting no sign of a negative or positive from the avenger. "Um, well, ?"

Sasuke's eye twitch just worsened, nothing to do with the couple having sex, "Care to repeat that please, I have amazing eyes, not amazing ears."

Starting again, slower, he repeated himself. Another side of his brain though thinking about the advantages of super hearing and which clan might have such a bloodline, "I got kicked out of my apartment and Sakura won't let me stay at her house so can I stay here please?"

Giving Naruto another look, this one amused, he told the sun kissed genin, "Well, there's not a lot of room in here… Hmm, why don't I get back to you tomorrow on this, I think I should sleep on it." And with a smile he closed the door gently… before locking the handle… and the deadbolt… Naruto was pretty sure he heard a chain being slid into place… Were those seals on the outside of the door?

Turning around Naruto walked back to the stairs, the woman apparently satisfied by the quiet in the hallway, shortly before two men started grunting… _'Maybe it's all for the best after all?'_ he thought to himself with a smile.

In his apartment Sasuke sat reading a book on seals, eye twitching, "Must… find… silencing… seal! DAMN YOU ITACHI!"

From the other side of the wall one of the men yelled back, "But me and Itachi-chan haven't even gotten to the good part yet."

The eye twitched long after sleep blissfully took him.

Outside the building Naruto looked up, the sky orange with twilight and fading fast. He had been lucky it was summer, or else night may have fallen already. Turning west he looked out towards the sunset, already partially covered by the village wall.

"Well that won't do." He mumbled to himself, running for the tallest building he had in sight, a tall apartment building deep within the abandoned district. Reaching it he ran up it, secretly thanking Kakashi for teaching them how to wall walk.

Looking out once more he watched the sun as it finally set, glad he at least got to see that, ending his day at a positive note.

Once the sun was down he looked around the building top he was on. "Place is in good condition." He remarked to himself, walking to and down the side of the building, noting the lack of debris at the bottom and that it was holding up structurally speaking. Seven stories tall, made of bricks and cement, and from what Naruto could _had_ to have been maintained somehow.

Reaching the bottom he found the entrance and was soon walking around inside, seeing how everything was undisturbed, the smell of long rotted food the only thing disturbing the atmosphere. From top to bottom all but one of the seven floors had been built for Shinobi living spaces, the top being one large apartment for the caretaker. Modern appliances were in abundance in each of them and the first time he tried to turn on the water it worked, clean crisp water.

Looking closer at things he saw several seals on the base of the faucet, leading to a trash can… "OH! Their filters." He exclaimed out loud, turning on the water once more as it filtered out what appeared to be… lake scum! Sitting down the boy started thinking about it… "Hmm… Um, well, I guess there could be an underground lake somewhere? If the building uses water from the lake then it would need some sort of filtering system… so they put it here. But what about the rest of the pipes, wouldn't they start getting full of the stuff too? Maybe there are more seals there, letting everything though. But, why?"

Putting the thought aside for the moment he went upstairs to the seventh floor, since it seemed to smell the least. Apparently whoever had watched over the building had cleared their stuff out before leaving or someone came and emptied them out afterwards.

The top floor was simply designed, the stairs came up into a hall that had three doors, one leading to the kitchen area and the rest of the living areas, one leading to the roof, and the last going into a maintenance room that had seven columns of seals set up on one wall, a desk shoved underneath the stairs heading to the roof and a rack with a bunch of scrolls set against the back wall. A single word came to his mind, "Jackpot!"

Unfortunately there were no jutsu in the small trove he found, all of them talking about seals this and seal that, maintaining seals and upgrading seals. Only one of the scrolls even piqued his interest, one that was sitting on top of the desk. A records log from what appeared to be the landlord. Finding the bed after looking around for a little while he through his scroll down and laid back, reading:

_August 3, year three of the Yondaime Hokage's Rule: The new building is nearly finished, so I have decided to place my records here. This building is going to be the future of Konohagakure, mark my words. Both Yondaime-sama and Jiraiya-sama have contributed to the seals that are all over the place, even I'm not sure of everything they did to it. Well, that's why they are Shinobi and I am a real estate agent! _

_On a more serious note, this building could revolutionize the way buildings are manufactured from here on out. Water is provided by a large underground river that forms a reservoir underneath the building. Potentially, from what Jiraiya says, a fifth of the population could use this same water source if their buildings were altered, though we still need to see how this project turns out. Due to the water source and some more well placed seals the building is also completely energy independent, running off hydroelectricity that is both collected and _stored_ by seals. And that isn't even the pinnacle of its greatness yet._

_Each piece of wood, every brick, everything is stamped with strengthening seals, possibly even making this building indestructible, though Yondaime-sama said that was far from true, scolding me for thinking anything could be made such. I suppose he is right, but still, it would make a great selling point!_

_August 6, year three of the Yondaime Hokage's Rule: Jiraiya-sama stopped by today to talk about the seals some more, saying whoever takes over the building will need to have a good background in seals to maintain the building. He left many scrolls on seals, not just basic ones that the building uses. He even offered to teach _me_ seals. I am sorely tempted to take him up on his offer but I doubt I have it in me to do them justice. _

_He talked in length on different functions of the seals, amazing me once more with what this building will be able to do one up and running. Since we are drawing straight from an underground reservoir we need a way to filter out the harmful parts, so they integrated it right at the sinks, filtering out all of the bad right then, straight into a garbage can. Furthermore there are seals in place of pipes, moving the water between them rather than manually moving it, preventing pipes from clogging and needing to be replaced. Then he told me about the heating system. The outside of the building is, apparently, one big conduit. Whenever wind hits the building, which is always, it absorbs that energy; storing it into a heating seal array in the maintenance room from there it is linked to each floor. All of the tenants in this building will have heat and electricity no matter what happens!_

_Lucky for us Jiraiya has started applying longevity seals, in order to prevent further maintenance from needing to be done for the first twenty years at least, that way we can see if this project will actually work._

_August 24, year three of the Yondaime Hokage's Rule: Once more this project has borne fruit like no other. I was informed of a new seal Yondaime-sama has developed, one to regulate air temperature! This is unheard of, such a seal will mean we offer something that even the Hokage's Tower doesn't have, and I was informed by Jiraiya that the Tower has all the seals on this building and more! When I asked why he would spend time to make it all I was told was: It's all for the Yondaime's Legacy… why, I'll be, that little rascal must've gotten that girl pregnant._

_September 16, year three of the Yondaime Hokage's Rule: Failure! I can't find a single person to take care of this place! Jiraiya told me it would be difficult, but absolutely no one wishes to maintain the building when they'll have to learn seals to do so! I asked Yondaime-sama about it and he said that because the war ended only four years ago he cannot spare any Shinobi, especially if they have the proper knowledge of seals to do so._

_September 30, year three of the Yondaime Hokage's Rule: Of all the things to say, Jiraiya has ridiculed me for trying to find help for this place. The fact of the matter is I have no choice, the tenants move in tomorrow, all of them giving their deposits and first month's rent, but still I have no one to watch the building. I tried to bribe an advisor to the Hokage, hoping they would be able to get a ninja reassigned, but no luck. That bastard Minato refused! Well, I still have faith in my building, it will show them all the folly of their ways. Mark my words!_

_October 10, year three of the Yondaime Hokage's Rule: Our first major test today, a massive earthquake shook the village. All around the district people are trying to gather up the pieces and fix their homes up, not me! No this building is fine, in fact, save for a few refrigerators being knocked open and one woman falling down, there was no problem what so ever! I feel like going for a walk, maybe I'll gloat about my building being the best. Then again with-_

The scroll cut off there, though it was clear to Naruto what happened; the Kyuubi.

Tucking the scroll into one of his pouches he laid back to sleep, not caring who's apartment it was. For him, this would become home

The next morning Naruto woke up, back aching, hip sore, and hungry. Apparently sleeping on top of his weapons pouch wasn't a great idea. Stretching out he also remembered the fact that he hadn't eaten since the morning before when they stopped for lunch.

So stomach rumbling he got out of bed and walked into the kitchen, hoping to find some nonperishable's to eat. Opening the fridge led him to an amazing discovery; it was full of food, none of which was spoiled in the least. Thanking the gods above he started pulling food out, mowing down like there was no tomorrow.

While he ate a portion of his brain was thinking, remembering the scroll from the night before, _'So, since none of this foods gone bad, then we have to assume there are seals on the fridge too, ones to keep food fresh no matter what… That's pretty awesome!'_ Finishing a turkey sandwich he made several more, deciding to take them with for lunch. Walking out to the roof he sat down an did something he rarely would do. Think!

"Well, this place is pretty amazing… and since no one else lives here, or anywhere around here, I should be able to claim it for myself!" he said aloud, watching as the sun rose.

"_But maybe we should think _bigger_." _came another thought, _"Those apartments were pretty small, and there were four to a floor. If we knock out the walls between two apartments on each side of the apartment then we could have two apartments on each floor that are large when compared to other Shinobi quarters."_

"But if I do that then I'll have to learn about seals, that way I don't damage any of them… I'll need construction plans too, that way I don't take out any of the pipes… and I don't know how to fix up the walls so they'll look nice again." All in all it looked pretty grim.

"_Well, the seals are easy, we have a treasure trove of scrolls on the subject and I'm sure they have floor plans in the building somewhere. Aren't seals what made the Yondaime so great anyway? Thing of the possibilities! Think of the money!"_

"Yeah… Yeah! Think of the money! And since Yondaime was so great and was a master of seals they HAD to have been a big part of it!" he was practically yelling, not caring who heard since, well, no one was around to hear. "Plus I can make this into a _real_ Shinobi apartment, the see how the basement is, maybe add a training area, I can grow plants here on the roof, and that top apartment was in great condition as it was. Oh I can't wait! But, it'll take time and Kakashi-sensei is going to be making us do a lot of exercises and probably won't give me a lot of free time to work on it." He ended quite down casted.

"_Hmm… well, I guess we could make clones do it for us."_ His inner Naruto suggested, making the outer personality perk up a little, "_I mean they _are_ you, so why don't we have them fix up the place, and see if they can make some notes in the library on how to work on the walls. Have them sort through the scrolls to see if they can tell what order they go in so you can start reading up."_

Outer Naruto was actually starting to get excited about the idea and soon made a couple hundred clones to get started on the days work. Running down the side of the building he was soon hopping from roof to roof, his team meeting starting in a half an hour.

Unfortunately for him he wasn't used to finding the meeting grounds from where he now lived, barely making it with seconds to spare. He was, amazingly, the last one there.

"Ka-Kakashi-sensei?" he asked in utter disbelief, "But, but, but you're here, on time… _early_ even!" Unknowingly he was the third person to do that today.

"Har, har, har!" he said, un-amused, "Well, since you're all here, why don't we get started. I'm going to be going off with all of you to tell you about your individual training. Genjutsu, ninjutsu, and, of course, Doejutsu." Making the two hand seals, a couple of Shadow clones appeared, "Right, Shorty, your with clone number one, Pinky, number two, Goth boy's with me." This brought about pouts from everyone.

"Oi, why is Goth boy with you?" he asked, earning a glare from Sasuke.

Fixing the boy with a glare he told him, "Because, Goth boy unlocked his Sharingan, I need to help him train with it. Don't worry, you'll each get a chance with me. There's plenty of me to go around. Now go!" and with that Sasuke and Sakura took off with their Kakashi's. "Well, now that their gone lets go over what I have planned for you." He started, "I do want you to start on a Taijutsu style, preferably Goken, though any style you feel comfortable will work. Since you already have several bloodlines I think I'll hold off before introducing you to the different clans, to see who has bloodlines and who doesn't. Now first thing you need to work on are your existing bloodlines."

Raising his hand he interrupted here to add in his two cents, "Um, well, I think Sakura-chan's is already working." Receiving a strange look from his teacher he explained, "Well, I kind of had conversation with… well, myself this morning and only realized it a little while ago when I showed up. It was pretty good too. I mean it noticed a lot of things I didn't. Anyways, I don't think I'll really need to do much with it for it to get stronger."

Staring at the boy, his thoughts barred to Naruto, he started talking, "Well, that _is_ a relief, seeing as there was no way for me to train you with it. I was going to suggest working with your Sharingan, trying to get it into top shape. Then you need to work on Ice Manipulation. Those are your two big targets right now. Next week I'll introduce you to a friend of mine, Guy. He, I know has a bloodline trait that you'll be able to put to good use if you can copy it."

This earned him a strang look, "Kaka-sensei? What's a Bloodline Trait? Isn't that the same as a Kekkei Genkai, a Bloodline Limit?"

Rolling his eye Kakashi explained in a patient manner, "Close. A Bloodline Trait or a Kekkei Hitokuse is simply a genetic… disposition, I guess, towards certain elements, techniques, even ways of thinking. That beings said, anyone can use their techniques with practice. A Kekkei Genkai is an ability or power that is tied right into the genetic code of a person, a doejutsu, an advanced element, or a body modification. And while a Kekkei Hitokuse can be copied or learned a Kekkei Genkai cannot."

Naruto simply nodded, _"So he wants to see if we can pick up on something as generic as a Blood Trait or if we can only go for the more unique Limits."_ His new personality commented.

"Good, now I have a lot of fun ideas for training so lets go meet up with the others, ok?" Kakashi said with an eye smile, getting a large grin from the boy.

Smiling, Kakashi never let on the hell those three would be going through.

The first day he started them all on dodging practice, for Sakura because she would never be the kind to block, while for the boys it was to help their Sharingan's and help them move react with them better. To strengthen the Sharingan one needs to try concentrate on fast moving objects, the fact that they were coming at you was even better motivation.

Furthermore, at least in Naruto's case it helped him develop the Jinton as well. With that bloodline is simply needed to be used more and more to develop stronger. Even by the end of the training Kakashi was throwing more shuriken at Naruto than he had been before.

That was only for the first hour though. After that he had them each work on different skills. For Sasuke it was his fire jutsu, Kakashi helping him refine it further and trying to remove some hand seals from the jutsu to make it faster. Naruto was being taught how to walk on water, Kakashi telling him that since he needs to work on elemental manipulation he should increase his chakra control as much as possible. Lastly was Sakura, who Kakashi had doing tree walking while carrying a fifty pound bag of cement to try and make her use her chakra more.

After three hours of that they all gathered once more, Kakashi leading them for a nice run through the village. Unfortunately they weren't stopping for little things like buildings, instead their teacher had them running up buildings, across the roofs and back down the other sides, eventually leading them into the forest where they jumped from tree to tree, while the mad man in a mask that was following them threw kunai and shuriken at them from behind to help them learn to sense attacks and listen to their environments for anything out of the ordinary. Surprisingly Sasuke did the worst out of the three, something Kakashi made sure to badger him about. Even more surprising was the fact that Naruto did the best, seeing as he had both excellent senses to begin with in addition to the Mind Partition helping him out.

After that nice little two hour jog they thought they had reached the worst of it. One word: nope!

While the three students ate, Naruto sharing his sandwiches with the other two, Kakashi started talking to them about chakra, different exercises he would have them doing, and what the next month entailed.

By five thirty, when they were done with their lunches/dinners, they started out again, this time with spars; three on one. To say they didn't stand a chance was like sayings an over-aggressive five year old with a wiffle ball bat might pose a threat to a box of newborn kittens. A slaughter ensured Sasuke was held down by clones and beaten; Naruto was set on fire for a few seconds and shortly after was doused with a C-rank water jutsu, all the while Sakura had been pulled into the ground while Kakashi read passages from Icha-Icha.

Four hours later they were broken, battered, and humiliated. The three rookies started walking back to their respective homes with orders to eat and get to sleep, told to be there the same time tomorrow.

0148 hrs- Konoha's western abandoned district, home of Naruto Uzumaki.

The boy was blissfully asleep, Kakashi mentally noted, and he was a deep sleeper. Shaking his head he decided the pain route would be best for the kid. Lifting his leg high into the air he brought it down onto the boys gut with great force, causing the boy to not only wake up, but nearly blow chunks.

"Morning Sleepyhead! Ready for another day of wonderful Training!" he said in a voice WAY to cheerful for the hour.

"Hatake!" he said, grabbing his stomach in pain with one hand, a kunai with the other, "You have three seconds before I skin you alive!"

"Well," the man said, pulling out his little orange friend, "to do that you need to catch me. Well, up and at them, time for our morning run." Ducking Naruto's attack he started for the stairs, "Get dressed and come after me with intent to kill." Walking out the bedroom door as the boy threw the bladed weapon.

This happened at Sasuke's apartment as well, though the boy was a lot calmer than Naruto. No, it was Sakura's visit that was a little more interesting.

Sneaking into the Haruno home, seven Kakashi clones soon found the girls room and all assembled around her bed, holding their instruments in their hands, ready to use them on the girl.

The lead clone, standing at the end of the bed gave the signal and they all started, playing the Reeille as loud as they could.

- t-w-o h-o-u-r-s l-a-t-e-r

It didn't take long for Kakashi to gather his students together in their chase of him, though the running didn't stop until nearly four in the morning, just outside a dango shop on the south side of the village, advertizing that it had every kind of dango all year round. Sitting down they all placed an orders in dead tired voices

"Bocchan"

"Hanami"

Sasuke's answer was lost amidst his snores.

"Well, I think I'll have some An-dango, with some Chichi afterwards to keep up my energy!" their sensei had _way_ too much energy in the morning.

"And while you're at it," yelled a voice, kicking aside the curtain in her way, "Get me some Mitarashi with extra Anko on the side!"

Turning around all four of them stared at the newcomer, two wondering who _else_ could still be awake, while Sasuke was just turning towards the source of the sound. A young woman in her early twenties dressed in fish netting, a tan skirt that barley seemed legal, a thin white undershirt, and a tan trench coat that skirted the floor.

"Oh! Hello Anko, how are you doing?" asked their teacher in a pleasantly scared tone, "I haven't seen you in what a month, two?"

"Three." She said bluntly, "and you still owe me from last poker night!"

"Maa maa! Why don't I just give you one of my students, eh?" this earned a glare from Sakura and a laugh from the Anko.

"Hmm, well, they do look delicious!" she stated, licking her lips, "Especially the pink haired one. I accept! Come here pinky," she said, crutching her finger at Sakura, "come to your new owner!"

Sitting down they all started eating, "So, seriously, what brings you here so early Kakashi? It ain't like you to train this… ever."

"Well," he said, putting down the last of his dango sticks, "I had a big mission recently. After seeing how they did on it I'm convinced they're ready for the Chuunin exams."

"Really?" she asked, interested, "What was the mission?" listening intently as he explained what happened, leaving out Naruto's bloodline. "Momochi, FUCKIN Zabuza! You have got to be shitting me, right?"

Looking at the flabbergasted jounin he shook his head, "No, their more ready that any of the other teams I think. What I really want to ask you is if you have a problem taking Naruto for a few days next week? I think he could learn quite a bit to add into his style."

"Well of course he can!" she yelled, happy to oblige.

"Can he sign it?"

"Fuck no!" said in just as cheerful of a voice, "You know that there's only one person able to use the major summons of _that_ clan. And frankly, I don't think he would come here to let the boy sign it."

"What about the minor summons? Could that be done?" he asked, narrowing his eyes in suspicion.

Seeing this, the woman started to get serious, "Possibly, though I won't do it until I _know_ that he is worthy. I may not have liked my teacher, but he installed in me that much: don't waste time or power on the worthless."

Nodding Kakashi turned to his Chichi dango that just arrived, "Very well, I'll probably send him to you in the latter half of the week, though I vwas also trying to set something up with guy." And with that he put down the last dango stick and stood up, "Alright, you've all eaten, time for dodging practice! Every cut you have by the end of practice means twenty push-ups!" and so their training started back up.


	3. Chapter 3

**Please remember that you too can write this story, just send me a message and ill send over any pertinent information**

Day in and day out their training went. Sometimes he would wake them at sunrise, other times after a few hours of sleep. Before the first week was up even Naruto was a light sleeper. Once they all had water walking down Kakashi would also have them running across the rivers in town, changing from wall walking to water walking. Sparring was now done on irregular surfaces, sometimes the river, other times the tree's, and once even the edge of a waterfall.

Speaking of sparring they were never let out of that. The first time someone complained they were given two bells while two students would try and get the bell from them. Everyone had at least once been forced into this. Sasuke and Naruto worked on their elements while Sakura was being taught Katon: Flame Bullet. With partial success, but success none the less. Sasuke was easily getting the basics of Lightning manipulation and was told that if he got far enough then the month before the exams he would teach the boy his technique.

Naruto on the other hand was having a hell of a time with his ice manipulation. He could freeze it, no problem, but making the frozen stuff move was harder. Water he had no problem with and could mold it around in his hands like silly putty, causing Kakashi to try and teach him a few Suiton techniques, including the recreation of Haku's Thousand Flying Water Needles. It was hard work, but he was soon able to recreate most of the technique. By the end of the week he was able to do basic ice manipulation. And by basic I mean he was able to make an ice cube or even freeze a single water needle.

As for dodging, well soon they were all doing good… so good that Kakashi decided to start using multiple clones on them while they dodged. When they ran he would no longer throw _just_ kunai… no, now he threw exploding Kunai, at least when they were in the forest.

Kakashi was actually a little awed by their progress, especially Naruto's. When he had started his Sharingan was nothing really, the weakest of the weak. But when he added in the Jinton in it became something more. By the end of the seventh day he could easily say that the boy's progress in those two areas was fantastic. Even the Sharingan alone was stronger, though still in its one Tomoe stage. His reflexes came like instinct now, even when he couldn't see the target coming towards him.

By the end of the first week he had started Sakura on basic genjutsu, which she took to like a fish to water, and had manages to triple the girl's reserves. With luck he could convince Kurenai to give him some genjutsu to teach the girl.

Not to diminish their achievements though was the fact that they still had their weak points. Sakura was still the slowest, weakest, and least enduing of the three, Sasuke was still arrogant and had yet to learn any lightning jutsu or new fire jutsu, though he said he was reading up on a few at the moment. As for Naruto, he was still too slow, had bad chakra control, only knew how to plan while _in_ a fight, and hadn't learned a new jutsu with his ice element yet, though had managed to pick up the Suiton: Bullet Jutsu as well as the Sword of Water.

As for his Taijutsu, well, it sucked!

He was able to get the idea and forms easy enough, but when it came to execution it all fell apart from lack of physical ability in that field. That said Kakashi got a hold of Guy, Making a deal to train his other two students for a while if he and Lee could get Naruto up to speed, so to speak.

When the eight day dawned Naruto was amazed to find two green things staring at him from beside his bed, gigantic smile plastered into place.

"YOSH! Naruto-san, it is time to wake up and light the Fires of your Youth!" was the taller one.

"HAI! Guy-Sensei is right! We must run now, to get you fire burning!" the shorter.

"Wha-"

"There is no time for questions, get dressed so we can BURN WITH THE WILL OF FIRE OF YOUTH!"

"YOSH!"

"LEE!"

"GUY-SENSEI!"

"LEE!"

"GUY-SEN-"

"HOLD ON A SECOND!" he said, out yelling the other two. Sitting up in his bed he looked the duo down, still dressed from the night before. "Alright," he Said groggily, "I take it that you are Might Guy and _you_ are Rock Lee, the guys that are taking over my train for the next few days?"

"Why, YES WE ARE! I am Might Guy, Konoha's Elegant Blue Beast! And this is my student-"

"I KNOW who, you are!" he said, interrupting them, "Now if you could keep it down or the Landlords going to get upset."

"Landlord?" asked Lee, a confused look on his face.

"Yes, the landlord. He doesn't like getting up early." He replied, rubbing the sleep from his eyes.

"But, Naruto-san, I was told that you claimed the building by Kakashi?"

"Yup, and I don't like getting up early… What time is it anyways?" he asked looking for a watch.

"Ah yes, the golden hour of three A.M." all too soon was Naruto chasing them, taking a page from Kakashi in his liberal use of kunai.

Soon though he stopped and started enjoying the run, especially after he saw Sakura, Sasuke, and several Kakashi's with instruments enter, what Lee told him to be, Tenten's house. The sight of a half naked Hyuuga chasing after Kakashi was another good sight.

"Ah, its good to see Kakashi is keeping up their regular schedule!" said Guy, smiling brightly.

The next four days were pure torture for Naruto. Since it was just the three of them, Guy decided that they would push their limits with intense runs that Naruto almost didn't finish, intense spars, which Naruto almost didn't survive, intense lunches, which Naruto almost wasn't able to eat, and intense form control, which Naruto almost did perfectly.

Naruto actually enjoyed that time, there was no change, no sudden wake up calls without notice, just the three of them, training.

By the fourth day Naruto could see improvement in his form thanks to watching Guy and Lee with his Sharingan. The runs became much easier, as it seemed he just needed to get used to his sleep schedule. The spars were actually the most fun Naruto had had in a while.

Lee was an amazing opponent, and for the first time he was actually able to see the difference between how he had fought before and how he fought now. He could see almost all of Lee's movements and was actually able to keep up with some, his body practically moving on its own with the Jinton, his Inner Naruto coming up with different moves and strategies to try and fight him with. And, despite Lee's apparent inability to use chakra, he was allowed to use jutsu himself, not that it changed the battles outcome's any.

He had learned quite a bit in those four days: that a water sword would break apart if Lee punched it straight on. That Shunshin no jutsu would let him move someplace fast, but he could only change the straight line path it took so much, meaning that he could move someplace, but he could not really set up an attack while still in the shunshin: he had to set it up before he moved and execute it mostly after he arrived, minute changes mid shunshin amazing Lee and Guy none-the-less. He also learned that that was harder than it sounded. Lucky for him he was able to get the jutsu down seal less, due to it being one of the easier to do techniques.

He also learned one last thing, something he couldn't wait to tell Kakashi, whatever bloodline trait Guy had, Lee apparently has as well. He had been told to expect a bloodline from the older of the two, but when he got it from Lee and nothing from Guy, he knew it right then. Unfortunately, the other half of his brain seemed to remind him, since all bloodlines are used through chakra somehow, that Lee would never be able to use it.

Once the fourth day of training was done, and Naruto was presented with a jumpsuit with weights, he took off to find Kakashi, strapping the orange legwarmers and weights on under his pants. Running along, trying to get used to the weights and doing so quite successfully, Naruto soon found them, Kakashi, Sasuke, and Neji being chased by the two girls as they threw different weapons at them gleefully.

Running after them e soon caught up to the girls, "So, um, Sakura-chan? Why are you two trying to kill them?"

Earning a grin from the other girl in a Chinese top and hair done up into two buns, he got a reply, "Well, Neji made a sexist comment on Kunoichi, Kakashi agreed, while Sasuke made a bad comment about the time of the month."

"Ah," was all he said, then, "Need any help?"

"Sorry, Kunoichi only." He laughed, watching as he made a single seal and turned into his sexy jutsu version of himself, "Much better! Here have a shuriken!"

Later, after saying goodbye to team Guy's members, Kakashi and Naruto sat down onto of his building, watching the sun set.

"So, learn anything useful while you were with Guy?" asked the masked man, watching the oranges and reds.

"Yeah, you could say that. I don't think I'll have a problem with my form anymore, not since watching a real master use it so much. So, which trait is it that Lee and Guy have?" he asked, wondering what ability he had now.

"Well, I was unaware that Lee had it as well, though it shouldn't surprise me. Its call 'the Keys to the Eight Gates.' It allows the possessor to open a certain number of the Eight inner gates without harming their bodies. I have seen guy use up to six of them, though his father could apparently use seven. If you are able to master this bloodline, then you should be able to open all eight gates without any harmful effects. Something not possible without… Massive, amounts of training." Which Guy had of course undergone as well.

Scrunching his face up in confusion Naruto asked him, "What are the eight gates?" even his inner Naruto was stumped.

Looking down at the boy he wondered, not for the first time, if he had actually slept through the whole academy. "The eight gates are limiters the body places on itself to prevent it from harming itself. When someone opens the gates they are forcing open these points to allow more chakra to enter their bodies, for muscles to go beyond their supposed limits, and for vast increases in stamina. However for a normal person to open the gates they need to break them open, causing a number of deadly side effects from muscle tears to insanity, even death if you open the final gate."

"Then why would someone open them?" he asked, wondering who would die, just for a quick boost of power.

"Plenty of people, the Nidaime for instance." Was the reply, as he looked away from the setting sun to fix his student with a hard look, "The final gate, if opened, is the ultimate power. It would let you become nearly invincible, several times faster than sound, strong enough to move the Hokage Mountain with a single hand, or enough chakra to use a jutsu that would destroy an entire country. Any Hokage would be willing to use that power to protect Konoha, especially if they have no other choice."

Turning around he started heading for the door, Naruto not far behind, "You start with Anko tomorrow. Try to make a good impression, she can be quite… violent… when provoked. By the way, Naruto, why didn't you try and get near the Hyuga boy earlier?" he asked, looking at Naruto expectantly.

"Why would I do that?" Kakashi just rubbed his eye and took off, leaving Naruto to ponder.

-0-

Walking into his back room Naruto sat down, several of his Shadow clones looking over scrolls, "So, any progress yet?" he asked, wanting to get the building maintenance under control, "Not yet boss. Since we discovered that little trick with the clones things have been going smoother, but still we have a lot of ground to cover and these scrolls need to be read in order."

It was on the second or third day when he discovered a little trick with the shadow clones, their ability to transfer whatever they learned to the original. It made things a lot easier in the seal department, as well as cleaning up the building. He didn't know a lot about seals yet, but he had enough to where he might be able to start knocking walls down soon.

"Great, well, keep up the work. After we're done with Anko I'll start getting to work remodeling the place. Hopefully by the time the exams are over we will be ready to furnish the place."

Laying down for a good night's sleep, goggles fixed into place on his face.

For once Naruto was allowed to wake up Naturally. Sitting up he stretched, opening his eyes after a minute or two.

**Fwam!**

And with that, his training started.

"Whad da PUCK!" he yelled through a bloody nose and increasingly fat lip. Opening his eyes again he saw Anko looking down on him, Kunai in one hand, licking the blood off her knuckles with the other.

"Mornin bastard!" she said, quite cheerfully, "Talked to Kakashi this morning and guess what?"

"Yur on yur rag and bont be peaching me?(Your on your rag and won't be teaching me?)" he asked, hopeful and swelling with pain.

"Oooh! Close, but no cigar." She said, jumping on his lap and pulling his face close to hers, "Actually, I let him know that if I was going to teach a little bitch like you _anything_ that I would need more than a few days. So he asked how long would I need and I told him." moving the boys head so that they were face to face, quite literally, whispering to him. "So now you're my little sex toy for the rest of the month!"

Pulling their faces apart she punched him in the gut and told him to dress in the next ninety seconds before she threw a ration bar at his head and told him to eat up.

Anko didn't like wasting time, nor did she see why people would waste time with training by themselves or with blunted kunai, or no jutsu. As soon as the boy was dressed she told him that they would be sparring until she had a decent gauge on where he stood overall.

Too bad for Naruto he didn't know Anko.

Her idea of sparring put Kakashi's to shame. She beat him into the ground, tried to burn him with fire jutsu's, which he was able to not only avoid but copy, and had no problem summoning creatures to attack him.

One particular part of the fight stuck out in his mind, when she started using jutsu. By this point he had been physically beaten and cut, amazingly landing two hits on the woman since his wake up earlier this morning. The first had been when he used his shadow clones. The second was when she underestimated his ability to heal, thanks in total to the Fox. This had led her to decide 'hey, this kid can take a beating like no other, let's see what else I can do to try and kill him!' After that happened the fight didn't last too much longer.

With a vicious kick to the side of his head, snapping his neck back like a rubber band, the boy went down, landing in the grass face down. Immediately he could feel the injury starting to heal. That was one of the upsides of his training with Kakashi; he got injured so much that the foxes healing powers seemed to be driven into overtime.

Walking over to him the sadistic little… teacher, started taunting him, "You know, I really expected more from you, kid." She stated, pulling out a kunai, "Kakashi thinks so highly of you, same with the old monkey. Guess it's all show though, huh?" Bending down beside him she started stroking the side of his head, caressing it almost, "What was that thing you would yell out to the village all the time? That you would be some poor sap who would die a worthless death for the sake of a bunch of pigs… Yeah, something along those lines. Well I gotta say, if this is all you got then I better just kill you now!"

Lifting the Kunai up she started swinging down when he lashed out, punching her in the nose… hard. "Listen Anko-Oban!" he yelled, standing up, "I'm going to be Hokage one day! And anyone who thinks they can stop me or disrespect the Hokage's going down!" Looking at her, he cracked his neck to the side before getting into his Goken stance.

Looking back at him she clutched her bloody broken nose, a grin appearing on her face, "Bad idea bitch!" and with that she lunged her arm out, throwing dozens of snakes at him, wrapping around his arms and legs, "Sen'eijashu!" and with that he was air borne, being lifted up by the creatures and slammed into the ground a couple of times before swinging him into a tree. That wasn't the end of it though as she then had them bite onto him, injecting him with poison before swinging him around in a circle and releasing the snakes.

And, as they say in NASA, 'We have liftoff.'

Stumbling to his feet after the fall he soon saw his teacher/trainer/murderer/torturer/executioner run at him, kunai already in mid flight towards him, finishing the last hand seal for a technique. And with that the single kunai turned into twelve, forcing him to jump aside or be impaled.

Facing her again he tried to get a hit in but he came across the problem he had been having before. He would try and hit her, only to have her squirm out of the way at the last second and hit him. Not only was it frustrating because he couldn't hit her, but it was scary as well, as he couldn't follow her with the Sharingan either. He would see her, she wouldn't move a muscle, and then she would go, striking almost too fast to follow, completely unpredictable.

When she attacked it wasn't nearly as hard to follow, save how fast she struck and that it was never the same twice until it was too late to react.

Left and right he dodged, learning quickly that blocking did no good against her style, though even dodging her hits didn't work all the time. Point in case when he tried to lean out of the way of a kick only for her to turn it, striking him in the stomach and pushing him back quite a ways.

Panting, trying to get his breath back he watched her smile before making hand seals. Before Naruto had been wave he might have hesitated here, but now, after surviving both Zabuza and Kakashi's intense training he didn't. Watching through his Sharingan he started doing the seals in turn, just as Kakashi had shown him to do, _'snake-ram-monkey-boar-horse-tiger'_ releasing the technique a second after she did. "Katon: Great Fireball technique!"

Both attacks collided in the middle, making a giant explosion that consumed them both. All in all, it wasn't either of their proudest moments.

When they had released their attacks they had been about a dozen or two feet away from one another, meaning both of them were pretty close to the explosion. The only difference really had been the fact that Anko got the hell out of there when she saw it was going to blow. Well, that and the fact her fireball was bigger.

Walking over to him afterwards she looked down at him with a strange face, saying one thing before she walked away.

"I guess you're good enough to train. See ya tomorrow kid."

Panting, eyes closed, Naruto just lay there, letting the Kyuubi's chakra heal him, thinking about the fight, remembering that ending there. For the first time in a fight he had copied a jutsu like Kakashi showed him. And, just like his sensei had told him, he probably wouldn't want to use every jutsu immediately.

Opening his eyes he sat up, noticing the sun was already starting to wan, _'Probably around 1:30 or 2.'_

Getting up he realized something else, something Sasuke had learned long ago, "Oh, shit! I'm naked!" and he started to run back to his apartment, blushing and stomach rumbling.

-0-

Anko was like no other instructor he had ever had, to say the least. Kakashi would spread a bunch of different things over the course of a day, making a full 'lesson' last several days or even an entire weak. Anko though had him work on one thing for a majority of that day until he got it or she had had enough and started their daily spar.

The second day started much like the first, with him waking up and getting hit, her cursing at him for being inattentive to his surroundings. This infuriated him to no end, especially seeing as Kakashi would try and sneak in there nearly every morning as well and could never catch the man.

That first day of actual training she had him out on a lake, quite literally, practicing the Great Fireball jutsu he had copied the day before, being told he did it sloppy, wasted too much chakra, and didn't know how to use it properly.

He did have to admit, she knew her stuff, almost as well as Kakashi. Whenever he put too much chakra into the attack he would slip underwater, meaning he had to refine his use for both the water walking and Katon jutsu to their ideal points before she would tell him it was mastered.

The boy also learned exactly how _much_ chakra he had… He was not disappointed.

After each one of the fireballs the woman would just watch him, commenting, waiting for him to give up he was sure. But after two straight hours of breathing fire he was still going strong, at most a little tired from all the heat and standing, Anko's jaw just hung there, watching him work.

But it was the nightly spars where he got the most out of the training. Unlike Lee or Guy, Anko didn't hold back… in the slightest. The other two may have been tough, but just because you were on the ground, trying to get your breath back, didn't mean she wouldn't come behind you, kick your balls into your rear, and then point and laugh at you. Furthermore was the fact that she demanded he use the jutsu he had been working on, trying to hit her with it, telling him to try and combine it with other techniques. To be sure, if anything else, there was no practice for jutsu like fighting a real opponent, especially when they're a much stronger opponent.

Katon: Great Fireball turned into Fuuton: Great Breakthrough in a day and a half.

Naruto simply remembered being up, scared shitless, on a thin pole, barely enough room for his two feet, the ground beneath him covered in sharpened wooden sticks Anko had shoved into the ground. The fact that he was also forty feet above the ground might also have been part of why he was scared.

And that's the thing about Wind techniques; they involve a lot of movement. Anko's job was simply to get the idea of keeping his ground when he used the attack and it was MUCH more difficult to keep his ground here than it was to stay on the water before.

After nearly three days of that, Fuuton: Great Breakthrough turned into Doton: Underground Projection Fish jutsu and the Double Suicide Decapitation Technique, both of which he remembered Kakashi saying he used on Sasuke.

This had to of been the most fun he had had training. It only took a single day to complete her training for both techniques after he had the basics down. Anko was a free spirit, he realized, sneaking up on another person who was training, this time the girl from Guy and Lee's team. She wanted to have fun and protect Konoha, never being shackled to anything she didn't respect.

Coming up underneath the girl, as he had several other already, he prepared to grasp her ankles, only hesitating for a second to think if he wanted to do this to Lee's teammate. But then he remembered what Anko said: 'Take no survivors and show no mercy' so he grabbed her ankles and pulled her down to her neck into the earth.

As he sped away he started thinking about the woman some more. That first day had been a test, he had realized, because she wouldn't teach him if she couldn't respect some part of him. What had he done that she respected though?

Was it his attacks? He couldn't imagine his Taijutsu being enough; she had dominated that part, never letting up from start to finish. His persistence? He couldn't see that, as she just kept attacking him if he was down or not… Pulling down another person, this time a man dressed in typical Chuunin wear, he took off, deciding it would be better to focus on the training.

When he got back to her, ready for their spar she looked at him and smiled, "You know kid, if you ever get tired of working for old man Kakashi, there may be a place for you as my apprentice."

Naruto actually considered the idea for a minute or two. Apprenticed he would be able to grow much faster than if he were on a team with the others, he would be more likely to get a field promotion too, as apprentices more often than not don't bother with the Chuunin Exams, focusing on training and missions. But the thought of leaving Kakashi, Sasuke, and Sakura… it just didn't seem right to him, like he would be betraying something.

"No, I don't think so." He said, "Not yet anyway." And with that he settled into his Goken stance, ready to fight.

Slowly Anko walked forwards, a true smile on her face, "Come on kid, I'll treat you to some dango." She told him, walking away, him quickly following after. "Some of the best stuff in the world."

"Yeah, but Ramen's better!" he stated in kind, nearly out of years of doing so.

"Is not." She said simply.

"Is too." He replied, glancing over at her.

"Is. Not." Her teeth clenched together.

"Yes, it is!"

**Wam!**

"No, my fist is best and we're getting dango!" and like that she kept walking.

Once they were sitting, the same dango place Kakashi had brought them to he noted, he turned to her, "Anko-sensei?" he asked, ducking under her fist.

"What'd I tell you about calling me that?" she demanded, taking her first plate of dango.

"Yeah, yeah, 'don't'. Anyway, I was curious, what did I do to pass you test that first day?" looking at her expectantly.

Chewing she sat there and thought for a second, never putting the dango down, "Kid, it wasn't any _one_ thing, it was a number of things. The fact that you made it as long as you did, that you didn't stop because it was too hard, the amount of stamina you have, the fact that your chakra reserves are easily three times as big as mine, nearly twice as big as Kakashi's, that fire jutsu you used, and by the way, Kakashi _told_ me you didn't know how to do any fire techniques."

The way she leered at him made him nervous, _'did Kakashi tell her?'_ he thought to himself.

"Meaning one of two things, either you stole a Sharingan from that teammate of yours." Naruto gulped, "or you've simply been working that much harder."

Smirking at him she rubbed the top of his head in a playful manner, "Despite what some may think, hard work isn't rewarded with anything other than survival." She said, turning back to her food, face stony now after the show of emotions, "You don't get applauded or paraded for working hard, you just get to live. If, in the process of surviving, you do something worth noting, only then do they notice you, making it all the harder to survive."

The rest of the mean was eaten in silence, as Naruto thought over what she said, drawing his own conclusions. Before they left he said one last word, "Thanks."

The next day he woke up, jumping out of bed and onto the ceiling, sticking to it with chakra, looking down at Anko whose fist was still in the pillow. He was already dressed, having gotten into the habit of dressing before going to sleep thanks to Kakashi, Guy, and now Anko.

Jumping down to stand next to her he got a smile before she threw him his breakfast and they started for the training fields. As they walked Anko told him what they would be up to, "Ok, listen up brat, we got a week and a half before I need to give you back to Kakashi, so I plan of doing a few things with you. First off there are two jutsu left I plan on teaching you: Kanashibari jutsu and one of my signature techniques that you got very well oriented with on that first day, Sen'eijashu. Both are very difficult to learn, the first being an ANBU level technique, the other requiring a summoning contract to do so. After you have those two down I plan on having you drilled into the ground learning chakra sensing, silent killing techniques, and the basics of the Hebi style."

"Hebi style?" he asked, confused.

"Yeah, Hebi, the Snake style developed by Orochimaru of the Sannin. It involves moving in ways that are nearly impossible to track even with a Sharingan. The key to the style is to simply stop telegraphing your moves and reacting to an enemies attack by reading how they telegraph their moves. It actually consists of two parts, the upper and the lower. You see you don't want your enemy to be able to predict what you are going to do, so you need to move the top half of your body contrary to what the bottom half is doing. To be honest there is a pattern to it all, but you would need to be a full master of the style to know it all."

Reaching the training field they had been blowing up for the past week she brought him over to a favorite spot of his, the sticks in the ground. Now that he looked he saw that they were no longer just sharpened sticks stuck in the ground, they were razor sharp bamboo now.

'_Uh-oh!'_

"Ok, kid, since you've finally proven to me that your tough, and have good enough chakra control, I'm going to combine training again today." Saying that she stepped onto one of the bamboo spikes, through the Sharingan he could see that she was sending chakra to her foot, like the tree walking exercise, then focusing it in a single point keeping it at a steady rate, while sending that flow out from that point like the water walking. "This is the point balancing exercise, an advanced combination of the two basic chakra control exercises. Just focus your chakra into the exact point where you step on the point and send out a constant stream of chakra to keep it from piercing your foot. Need I mention the danger?" seeing him shake his head a negative she told him to get to it.

To put it simply, this exercise was HARD. As in he stabbed his foot several times and had to wait for it to heal before he could try again. It was so hard that Anko didn't try and make it harder. It was halfway through the day before he even started getting the hang of it. He personally had no idea how anyone without a bijuu was able to finish this exercise.

Soon after he started getting used to the exercise Anko started with the second half of the training, "Alright brat, now listen up and concentrate on the exercise." Amazingly this was not nearly as hard as it had seemed a week ago, "While you're doing this exercise I'm going to be training you to do the Kanashibari no jutsu too. The idea for the technique is to send your chakra into exact points on the enemy's body, preferably head, neck, spine, or any of the major nerves in the legs. Simple as that, shooting out your chakra. The hard part is that you need to pinpoint it, making it into a knife or a…"

"Senbon?" he asked helpfully thinking of Haku and a certain brand of jutsu he hadn't worked on in nearly two weeks.

Looking at him she smiled, personally amazed that the boy had not only already started to get the exercise he was doing, but was able to split his focus enough to talk and contribute to a conversation while he did so, "See I knew you weren't hopeless after all. For this training I have some very special friends to help us." And with that she summoned a dozen snakes, seemingly coming from her coat sleeve. "Now just try and hit these guys with the technique. They'll probably be the best practice as you still need to aim, but as long as you hit the straight on it should hit their heads. After you get the hang of things we'll start to… multitask."

Truth be told, the technique may have been considered ANBU class, but that was just because all Black Ops. Agents _had_ to know the technique, for obvious reasons. The technique itself was only D-rank, the same level as the body flicker, and not that hard to learn. No, the hard part came when Naruto had to try and hit the heads as they moved, thanking every moment that Sakura had decided to bop him on the head.

The true impasse came the next day, when the crazy woman had the snakes trying to bite him, a special treat going to the first bite his nads! Naruto's feet hurt at this point, even with his Sharingan he was having a hard time concentrating on all the heads as they moved around, jumping out and biting him, and Anko made it clear that they wouldn't be moving onto the next technique until he had these two down.

Bite!

Bite!

Bite!

'_Well, we could just take Anko's advice and hit the head!'_ one part of him suggested.

Another toning in, _"Possibly, but we don't want to mess this up, we got a good thing going here."_

"Awe, to hell with it!" and with a hard look he focused on Anko, who took this to be a simple glare at her as he always did when the training got tough.

"Aw, poor baby gunna cry? Wah, wah, ww- thunk!" as Anko fell the snakes all disappeared and the boy started jumping from bamboo to bamboo with intense concentration, waiting for the woman to get up.

Naruto was actually a little surprised when she did get up, ran to the boy and… hugged him? Insane death threats he could handle, Kakashi and Anko throwing kunai he could handle, Guy and Lee at three A.M. he could _almost handle_. But hugs from the woman that had tried to kill him for the past week straight? Nope, ain't going to happen, his brain shut down.

"Um, Uh…"

"Kid," she said, taking in a deep breath, "That was perfect! You took advantage of the situation, hitting the main target instead of wasting all your time on the distractions, effectively taking them all out. Sure, it was not what I _wanted_ you to do, but it was just as good and actually even better. You looked Underneath the underneath! Even if you don't realize what you did, you just did, and that, my precious little student," she said, this part slowly, sensually, "is why I plan on fighting tooth and nail to try and keep you!"

"_Think Uzumaki! We need to think!"_

"I… Um, I don't know if that'll be a good idea or not… I."

'_He's a flaming retard!'_ came the new voice inside his head.

"Hush now, we have more practice to do. But when we're done we can talk about it. Beside," she said with a grin that would have made the Tengu cringe, "it's time for your punishment!"

"Punishment!" he yelled, flabbergasted, "But I thought you _approved _of what I did?"

Stepping back a ways she eyed him, noting that he was standing on the bamboo while channeling his chakra subconsciously… or so she thought, "As a principle I do approve. How_ever_, not only did you not complete the task given to you but you assaulted a superior with an attack that left me vulnerable to assault. If this had been a mission, not just training, then you would have been court marshaled and possibly even executed, depending on whether the person likes you or not." She said all of this in a voice that had clearly both read and been read those lines before.

"Aw, horseshit! You hate the rules and you know it!" he yelled, earning a kunai to that nipped his left ear.

"Yeah, your right. But when on a mission it doesn't matter what I like, or what you like, or what Kakashi likes. It all winds down to the rules in the end. Sure, this village is one for bending the rules, making some leeway for good morals, but even in Konoha you wouldn't be able to avoid something like that. So, now we are going to work on you doing this attack, against twice as many snakes... but I'm not completely heartless, I will tell you why you weren't making any progress." That peaked his interest, "You're only forming one point of chakra at a time, you can create as many as your concentration, control, and chakra allow!" and without any further ado she sent the snakes out again, this time from both sleeves.

Anko's little hint did help things along quite a bit actually, as Naruto, and what he assumed to be a second 'inner Naruto' concentrated on making more of the chakra points, while the original inner Naruto held their concentration at the feet. He was done with the exercise by dinner and getting his ass kicked late into the night.

The next morning proved to be one of the more important days in Naruto's life, something that would shape him for years to come. When he woke up, jumping out of his bed to the side this time, he saw Anko standing there, no smirk, no grimace, nothing at all, a face blank of all emotion. Immediately this put him on guard.

"Um, Anko? Is everything alright?" he asked, walking towards her cautiously, his body turned slightly to the side in order to provide a smaller target.

Looking down at him she nodded approvingly at his guarded stance as he approached her, nothing else showing on the outside, "No… I'm wondering if what I am about to do is right. If what I do next might be the stepping stone to something terrible." She answered honestly.

Turning around she beckoned him to follow her, leading the boy out of the village, heading for the training areas. Soon they reached and passed the area they usually used, hopping from tree to tree for nearly a full hour before they stopped, Anko throwing a ration bar to him, as she always did. Sure, they didn't fill you up as well as ramen, nor were they very tasty, but he had practically been living off of them for nearly a week now and had gotten quite used to it. His appetite had been curved that was for sure.

'_Guess that's another form of training she had me going through then, eh?'_

Looking around he tried to see if he knew the place where they stopped. Honestly he had never been this far out of the village except for Wave country. They had reached an area of the forest where the tree's grew tall, hundreds of feet, and were nearly five times as big as he was from side to side. Forest vines hung from the tree's here and there, ferns and other plant life clung to the base's of the trees.

"Tell me Naruto… What is power for?" she asked suddenly, looking at him intently, her face still blank of any emotion.

"Power… well, it's what you use to do something!" he answered unabashedly, while another part of him popped in and expanded on it. At seeing Anko frown he added it in quickly, "It's also what we all need to accomplish our goals. If you don't have power then you what you can do is limited, meaning that 'everything in your power,' might not be enough. Some people like Sasuke want it for revenge, others like Ojiji-sama want it to protect people… and… and then there are more people like you nee-chan!" he said happily, not seeing her frown increase.

"OH! _Like me_ you say?" watching him nod his head, "So tell me, why do _I_ want power?" quite curious to hear his answer.

"Well… I didn't realize it until the day we worked on those earth techniques, but your just a free spirit, you want power so you can stay free! You don't take shit from anyone and if anyone wants something from you, even someone like Kakashi-sensei, you want them to prove that their good enough for you, not the other way around… THAT'S why you want power: for Freedom."

The woman just stared at him for a few long seconds, trying to tell if he was being honest with her… "You have no idea…" she started, looking at him as his smile faltered. She just stood there her face emotionless, "You have no _idea_…"

And she was there, watching this boy blow out streams of fire onto the lake, her jaw loose and hanging.

He was on top of that wooded beam, the illusionary spikes underneath it looming threateningly as he held his ground with chakra, sending out great gusts of wind that shook the tree tops, blowing leaves to the air.

And her emotionless mask didn't crumble, a single tear didn't stream down her cheek. Naruto gaping in surprise like she had done a week ago, making her laugh.

It was six years earlier when she had seen him for the first time, she had been back in the village for the past four and a half years, still working as Chuunin. He was just standing there in the middle of the street crying as people passed him by. He yelled out to them then, that he would be Hokage, he would get all the strength he needed and become the greatest Shinobi in the village. She just looked at him and walked away too, going about her business.

It was twelve years ago, she and Orochimaru-sama had been in one of their hideouts when they felt it coming, a great chakra signature. Watching from afar she saw as the Kyuubi no Kitsune, the beast from legends, tore through Shinobi and tree's like they were dust to be wiped off the face of the earth.

"That is power my dear Anko." He had told her then, "Power that is meant to be unleashed upon the weak, power to be used to gain something, no matter the cost to others… That is power my dear."

"You have no idea how right you are." she said, hoping she was not about to create another Orochimaru. Only one tear 'hadn't' fallen, but he 'hadn't' seen it, and that was enough. Pulling out a large scroll she handed it over to him, "I don't know how much attention you paid when me and Kakashi had our little chat a few weeks ago, but he asked if it was possible for you to summon any of my summons and I told him no… well, that was a lie… you CAN summon them if you sign the contract, it's just a matter of survival." And with that she handed over the contract to him and instructed him on how to sign.

"SO!" he asked, a little shaken over all of this, "What do you summon again?"

"Idiot!" "_Idiot!"__ 'Dumbass!'_ both she and his two inner personalities yelled.

Sitting down, against one of the nearby tree's the woman beckoned him over.

Sitting next to the snake mistress, she began to talk, "Let me tell you a little story, about a man and his student…" she began, catching Naruto's interest immediately. Not long after that Naruto inherited a legacy… A legacy full of darkness and pain… one she hoped he could bring light to.


	4. Chapter 4

The remainder of Naruto's last week flew by in a flurry of snakes, mist tag, and getting punched in the face. Oddly enough sometimes that was all at the same time!

The boy quickly realized, with the help of inner Naruto number one, that this new personality was a result of the Mind Partition getting stronger. After a little thought between the three of them, and quite a few insults from the new personality, he came to realize that Anko was the reason why it formed. She had been forcing him to split his concentration with the different training techniques she used, doing chakra control, elemental techniques, and keeping his balance at the same time. That had made it so a new conciseness was needed, the ability to do so provided by the bloodline, while the only person he had had contact with had been a blatantly insulting sadistic _bitch, _giving the new part of his mind a personality.

Naruto decided he would call it his inner-Anko.

Naruto was actually having mixed emotions about the actual Anko. After the day in the clearing, when he signed the Hebi contract, she had resumed her carefree attitude. He had seen her shed a tear, one single tear. Yet for someone like Anko it was … well, amazing.

'_Please! She probably had something in her eye. Maybe she was thinking of different ways to torture us and got so happy over the prospect that she shed a tear in happiness!'_

Inner Anko was kind of annoying, by the way.

Shaking the thoughts from his head he kept walking towards his teams meeting spot, remembering his chakra sensing exercises, which actually involved doing the other four exercises with his eyes closed and Anko trying to throw chakra saturated Kunai at him. Needless to say he got wet, stabbed, fell from high heights, and stuck halfway through the earth on several occasions… ok, most of them.

Still, at least _that_ was the worst of them, the silent killing exercise simply consisted of playing "Kunai Tag" while walking on water and in a shroud of mist, another technique he was able to copy while she did it.

Summoning was pretty fun, that was for sure! All of the different personalities, and different abilities, of all the snakes. And she had introduced him to the only large summon that she was able to safely call forth, Oronoukon. She had also given him some warning for summoning.

"Ok, listen up, and listen good! There are a few things you need to know about summoning kid, most of which can get you killed if you don't do it right!" seeing him nod, a very serious look on his face, she went on, "First thing, when you summon, the size of the summon is comparable to the amount of chakra you will need to spend. If you try to summon a snake when your low on chakra, and it needs more than you got, then it's going to try and take it from you! That will _kill you_. Second, DO. NOT. SUMMON. THE. BOSS!" she said this part right into his ear, yelling the words one at a time, "Manda, the boss snake, will kill you if you summon him. Usually he tries to get sacrifices for his service and, if you were to actually provide them, he might actually work for you. Of course, the _second_ either I or any other Shinobi hear of Manda being summoned, your dead meat. Thirdly! Tell no one!"

This was actually the hardest for him to take, "What! What you mean tell no one? How are my teammates supposed to adapt if I don't tell them? I-" whatever he was going to say was cut off by her killing intent.

"Listen, brat, the people who need to know, know. The Hokage, me, and you! The Hebi contract is not a very well looked upon one, we summoners who use them are seen as traitors." Watching him go wide eyed at this she explains, "I know you're not a traitor, but Orochimaru was, as was I when I left the village with him. Besides, with the fox inside of you people really won't care to listen to reason if they find out. So I will repeat myself: tell no one, not even your own sensei."

This bothered Naruto more than a little, but who was he to argue? '_Beside,'_ he thought to himself, _'One day I'll be Hokage and people will see me and the snakes in a new light!'_

Realizing he was finally at the meeting spot he looked around, not seeing or sensing anyone. Well, he was early. Sitting sideways, with his feet on the railing to the small bridge where they would meet, a stream of water flowing by gently, he closed his eyes and concentrated on both sticking to the railing and sensing chakra signatures, something he wasn't to good at.

It took only fifteen minutes for the first person to show up, though Naruto honestly wouldn't have recognized her at first if he wasn't familiar with the chakra she had. Well, it might have been the fact that her hair was cropped close to her head and she was wearing a dark red tee-shirt with black pants that went down to just past her knee's, the back of the shirt sporting her usual white circle.

"Sa-Sakura-chan?" he asked, disbelievingly, "Wha-what happened to your hair!" he asked pointing, causing the girl in question to blush.

"Baka! I'm just trying out a new style!" she said, turning around, showing off a fine a- "And stop staring at my butt!"

Rubbing the back of his head he laughed hesitantly, "No- I wouldn't… um, nice style?"

Looking at him with a wry smile she started to thank him, right before Sasuke showed up, "A new style?" he asked, a small chuckle in his voice, "More like she lost a bet with Kakashi and had to destroy the dress and cut the hair off."

"Sasuke-kun!" she wined, smiling.

Sasuke himself had on a new attire as well wearing a black one piece suit with a high collar and bandages showing from both his legs and arms, "Well, Naruto, seems some things don't change, hn? Still sticking with those ridiculous goggles?"

Indeed Naruto was still wearing his orange outfit, though the jacket front was being left open, revealing a plain black shirt underneath. The only other change was also the fact that he had four thick water bottles hanging from his belt.

Standing around there, talking, Naruto couldn't help but feel it was all just… right.

"Well dobe, you manage to learn anything useful?" he asked mockingly, Naruto's response being to smirk at him before throwing out his chakra at the boy's forehead, stunning him for a few brief seconds, enough for him to fall backwards.

"That answer your question?" he asked innocently, Sakura actually grinning at Sasuke's misfortune.

"Maa maa, Naruto. But was that really necessary?" asked their masked sensei, only a few minutes behind the others.

"Necessary? No. Fun? Yes!" was the response.

Standing up tall the jounin looked down on the three genin, a serious look on his… eye. "Alright then, the games are over. Two months ago you lot were hopeless, greener than any group of genin I had ever seen. You were all headstrong, childish, and lacked the proper training to take on missions like the two we have lined up."

"Two missions, Kakashi-sensei?" asked the pink haired girl, adjusting her pouches she wore around her waist, "I thought you only wanted to do a few missions a month and we already have two for the first day?"

"No," he said, looking down on them, "We have one mission that will start today, and one that you were specifically requested for." This last apart made them all go wide eyed, "Don't be too surprised, after the news about the mission to Wave spread there was quite bit of a stir up at The Gato Corporation. Many of his more illicit operations started coming to light and now his company is being dissolved by Rai no Kuni where it was founded and operated. The Raikage has petitioned the Hokage to send the team who witnessed both Gato's death, as well as the conditions in Wave, to report on all of this in person. So you're going to meet the Raikage."

The three of them looked awestruck, it was one thing when you go to another country, even to another hidden village, but to meet a foreign Kage… things like that didn't happen every day, especially when you were a genin still.

"Furthermore," the man went on, "as a sign of goodwill he has offered his brother to teach you three for the duration of your visit while Gato Corporation is finish being dissolved." With this he fixed them all with a look, sending a tiny touch of killer intent at Naruto to make sure he had the boys attention, "The Raikage's line is said to hold a _very_ powerful bloodline, one that is very dangerous. We could all learn quite a bit on this trip."

"_Another bloodline boss, this could prove good!"_

"_And the bloodline of a KAGE no less! This'll be great."_

'_Yup'_

Now that all three Naruto's were in agreement, giving a small nod to Kakashi in turn to say he got the message, their captain carried on.

"But, that is not the mission we start today. No I requested a mission for us yesterday. It is the very hardest of C-rank missions and the hardest kind you will be sent on for solo missions when you are Chuunin. We have a missing nin to catch!" all their faces lit up at the prospect of a real fight, something to test themselves against.

"Alright listen up! The Shinobi is a C-rank missing Nin from our home sweet home, Konohagakure. He was a genin when he left, never being able to pass the Chuunin exams and was passed up four times for field promotions because he was too brash. Name: Urame Muda. He left the village seven months ago, killing his one remaining teammate, Ami, before he left." At this Sakura's eyes went wide, remembering the older girl. "Apparently Urame was upset because they were being moved to the reserves due to their sensei being reassigned. She saw him packing to leave and tried to stop him. He killed her with his strongest technique at the time of his betrayal, Katon: Ash Pile Burning, taught to him by his sensei, Asuma Sarutobi."

"Recently one of our spies intercepted a message from him going to a Curry shop in Kawa no Kuni. The message said to deliver a package to their location at an unnamed time, giving directions to their hideout, a large cave."

The others laughed this, "I guess we know why he never made it to Chuunin!" noted Sakura, smiling fiercely.

"Yes, yes, though you must treat this serious!" he said firmly, stopping the laughter, "That was a mistake true, but he left seven months ago and has had plenty of time to train and had been a genin for a year and a half before that, with formal training. Not to mention that the technique he used to kill his teammate is an upper level B-rank jutsu, able to cause third degree burns and explode as he wishes. This is going to be the most challenging you have ever had before, mainly because I will not be participating."

All of them started to protest, finally though Sasuke started to speak for them, "Kakashi, with us actually going into combat like this… wouldn't it be better if you were present?"

Kakashi looked at the boy blankly before answering, "Oh, I will be there, but only to take care of any higher class Shinobi that may be there. I want to see how you've all grown these past weeks."

"And there's no better way to do that than full on combat!" yelled Naruto, earning an eye smile from his sensei.

The four of them took off from the village not fifteen minutes afterwards, with Sakura taking note of what supplies they had and would need. Taking off Sasuke was at point, his Sharingan activated. According to the message that they had intercepted the enemies hideout was a large cave to the south west of Konoha, only a few hours run from the village.

When they arrived they stopped for a break, watching the entrance for any movement or guards, neither of which was spotted. Soon they were moving out, Sasuke on the left, Sakura and Naruto on the right, hugging the walls. All too soon they came to a fork. Choosing to split up the Uchiha went left, the other two heading straight.

The cave was surprisingly dry, considering the lushness of the area that it was located in. Walls of green and blue indicating it wasn't always so dry.

-Sasuke

Walking slowly, making sure his steps wouldn't echo, Sasuke kept wandering further down wards into the cave, soon coming across a large wooden structure against the final wall of the cave, going up to where the rock had been hacked away and blasted by something. At the base of the structure was a large body of water, running swiftly underneath the structure.

More important though, was the fact that the boy could see a flickering light coming from the man made hole at the top of the cave. Looking closely at the structure he could see the crude design it used, obviously made so it would creak no matter where you stepped on it.

'_Hn, it's an advanced warning system. Crude, but effective.'_ He acknowledged, choosing instead to scale the walls beside it, dropping in on whoever was inside.

Unfortunately for the Uchiha, he was dealing with something beyond him… or his sensei.

Dropping down into the doorway as silent as he could, the raven haired genin quickly made two hand seals, his eyes gleaming with the Sharingan and his fingers traced with lightning.

The room he stumbled upon was small, no more than fourteen fifteen feet at any side, lit by a single lantern that hung from the ceiling, the smell of blood was thick in the air, the source of which soon became quite clear to Sasuke as he walked in.

Hunched over a bloody corpse was a… figure, black tendrils coming off its body and piercing into the chest of the cadaver, two arms attached to the tendrils were holding the body still. The rest of it was covered in blue and grey clothing, save around the eyes, which were a solid blue. From the half of the face he could see Sasuke was able to identify his hitai-ite as being from Taki, though a long slash was going through the middle.

Watching in sick fascination, Sasuke saw as the tendrils pulsed, as if they were sucking the corpses heart blood out through its chest.

"You picked a _very_ bad time to try and be a hero, child." It said, dropping the body and calling all of the _things_ back into his body, his arms reattaching near the shoulders. "You haven't run yet?" he asked emotionlessly, "That was a very stupid thing not to do."

Though the Uchiha could see it, the attack was far too fast for him to dodge. Wiping his right arm out it sailed at the boy, hitting him in the stomach and launching him out of the cave and off the wooden scaffolding. As his vision blackened Sasuke saw the thing in a Shinobi's skin look down at him from the top of the wood structure. And then he hit the water and knew nothing else.

Standing at the top Kakuzu looked down in disgust. Sticking one hand out to his side he summoned forth the black threads he used to fight, a single mask going with it, an eagle design on it. As the large black blob settled it began to take shape, forming legs, arms and a torso, thin wire like wings sprouting off of its back, "This base has been found out about, destroy the room, the scaffolding, kill the prisoners and my… _apprentice."_ and he begun to chuckle, jumping down to the bottom.

-Naruto/Sakura

Following the walls, quickly and quietly, the other two were heading upwards, feeling the air get steadily heavier as they traveled upwards. Signs of the cave having been carved out becoming more and more clear as they traveled, with wooden supports being found ever few yards or so.

Amazingly they did reach an opening eventually, a large pit in the middle of the ground, seeming to form a steep slide to who knows where. The amazing part was that the _slide_ seemed naturally formed. Edging their way around it the two found themselves at another dilemma, as there were four or five doors leading out of the room, non with windows or any sort of indicators that they recognized.

"I hope those aren't all rooms for missing nin!" Sakura whispered, hearing it echo in the cave. "Kuso!"

Seeing as their silence was broken anyway Naruto made several clones, popping noises guaranteeing they would be found by anyone in there, "Ok, I'll send a clone back to Sasuke and sensei each to let them know what we found, the rest will open the doors while we stand back!"

And they did so, two clones silently making their way back the way they came, the others walking over to open up a door each. Before the first could even touch the door though, their enemy made himself known. Blasting the door off its hinges with a fireball sending it flashing out to hit anything else that might be there.

With sick fascination the two watched as Naruto's clone was destroyed, a figure stepping out of the room. He was taller than them, nearly fifteen years old, hair a light red and eyes a violent orange, wearing black suit and a green vest similar in style to the Konoha Chuunin vest and gloves with metal backers on them. They had found their target.

"Well, what do we have here?" he asked, more than a little annoyed, "I was trying to have a little nap and next thing you know a couple of little Konoha twats are poking around, trying to get into something they just ain't ready for." A maniacal smile on his face.

Without even hesitating Naruto pulled free a kunai in his left hand, punching a hole into two of his water bottles, "Sakura, cover me while I go in there and kick his ass!" he ordered, not looking back to see the girl pull out three kunai of her own.

Throwing his kunai he made several quick seals, "Water Sword!" and in his hand appeared a short sword made of water, only two feet tall. Slashing at the boy they started a game of cat and mouse, where Naruto would try and hit Urame, who's smile only increased at the sight of the sword, while Sakura tried to pin him from afar, only to have him deflect the kunai with the metal backs of his gloves.

Naruto had managed to hit the boy a few times along the arms, but never anything deep or debilitating. Getting upset Naruto finally overextended himself, giving the boy a chance to latch onto his arms, making the boy spasm before tossing him against a wall, making the blond slump down. "Pathetic!" he yelled, turning around, meeting a fire jutsu face on.

"Katon: Fire bullet jutsu!" she yelled, spitting out the ignited oil as he tossed Naruto aside. Hitting him right in the kisser. At first she had a smug look on her face, which turned to horror as his grinning face came into view, running straight for her. Jumping for the wall she pulled out a handful of shuriken, releasing them in a hail of metal before making three seals, "Katon: Blazing Shuriken Dance" setting the shuriken… well, ablaze!

The boy just smirked some more, batting the flaming weapons away like he had before, ignoring the heat that they were releasing, even going so far as to catch the last one and throw it back at her, dodging out of instinct.

"You just don't seem to get it do you?" he said, forming a single tiger seal, "I'm a Muda, I'm _Fireproof!"_ and with that he started firing off a grand fireball, only to get a kick the back before he could get more than a puff of smoke out.

"Fireproof, eh?" was Naruto, standing behind the older boy as he stumbled, "I like the sound of that!" and he jumped forward, bringing his foot across to try and hit the boy in the head, only for it to be blocked by nuke-nin's arm. Pushing off Urame he touched back down, dashing forward with a punch catching the boy in the gut.

"Why you!" he choked out, grabbing Naruto by the shoulders he once again tried to throw him, only to have the blond disappear in a puff of smoke that blocked his vision, "Leaf Whirlwind!" Seeing the orange blur in the smoke he quickly ducked underneath the first kick, rolling back to stop the second from hitting as well. "Please, I may not be able to use the moves but I had to defend against them during the Chuunin Exams!" he yelled, tauntingly as Naruto's second kick flew by hitting air.

"Oh, the exams you couldn't pass?" Naruto asked innocently.

Running forward he and Naruto were soon grappling hand to hand, as Sakura watched in awe at her teammate's performance.

"Your good!" he yelled in a greasy voice, "But you made one _tiny_ mistake." And with that the boy rolled backwards, pulling Naruto with him and kicking the boy off into the pit not two yards away from him. "You need to be aware of your environment."

"NARUTO!" his pink haired companion yelled as he hit the edge of the pit with a crack, falling down into its depths.

"And then there was one!" he said in a gleeful voice, walking over to Sakura with that sick grin on his face turning a bit more, lecherous, "Oooh, I like the hair little girl. Very sporty!" pulling out a kunai he slowly stalked towards her, "I _like_ sporty."

"Sorry, I don't _do_ girls." She said, Pulling out two kunai of her own, running towards him. _'He doesn't have a real Taijutsu style, but he's fast and strong.'_ She thought to herself, ducking underneath a swing of his weapon, trying to slash out at him with her left, getting a back kick in the side. _'He probably relies on fire jutsu's, but we've kept him busy with Taijutsu.'_

Sliding, she kept herself from falling with chakra, tossing her kunai as she went back, keeping him from forming anymore hand seals. _'We tried Taijutsu, I only know a couple of ninjutsu, and both are fire based. So that leaves one option!'_

Jumping back he made three seals quickly, "Lets end this! Katon: Ash Pile Burning!" releasing a large cloud of burning embers and dust into the small area, obstructing her view of him. Looking around Sakura went to the only safe haven she could see.

After nearly ten seconds the ash had filled the air. Clicking his teeth it all ignited, making a large plum of flame and clearing out the air. Looking around he saw nothing, no body, no bones, no traps. Cautiously he took a few steps forward only for the girl to jump out of the middle pit and run right for him.

Running at him she made a single seal, three copies of her coming to her side. "Please, an Academy tactic like this?" he scoffed, making a single seal, maneuvering his kunai around his hand, "Katon: Flame Flower!" and he launched three large flame bullets, hitting all three copies. As the girl neared he took his weapon, stabbing right at her.

"Too bad." He said, shaking his head as he let go of the kunai, "I wasn't able to have any fun with Ami either." His eyes widened though as he saw her smile. Falling backwards she hit the ground, bursting into a hundred little butterflies that started to fly all around him. Bringing his hands forward he learned that his movements had been stopped. Trying to move his head did nothing and slowly a tree branch into view, covering his mouth.

"You killed Ami." Her voice came from behind him as a tree branch moved his arm, another placing a kunai in his hand, "Now you're going to kill yourself!" and slowly his arm moved, positioning the kunai at his heart. _"Magen: Binding Tree of Sucidal Embrace!"_ and his arm plunged the weapon into his own chest, darkness overcoming him.

Pulling on the strings Sakura let the illusion go, binding him in ninja wire that now surrounded his whole body. Walking up to the unconscious boy she gave him a single kick to the head, "That's for Ami!" then she walked down and kicked him… elsewhere. "And that's for being a lecher!"

Flipping him over she started pulling out weapons and checking him over, pocketing his exploding tags, and making sure his bindings were secure. Suddenly the air changed, a strange sound filling it.

Plup, plup, plup, plup.

Looking up she saw some… thing, enter the room where they were. Stopping it started to look at her, its eagle mask tilting to the side as if it were thinking, before making a strange sucking motion.

A spike of chakra is all the girl had for notice, grabbing Urame with both hands and chucking him into the pit she followed after, barely missing the wave of air pressure as it struck the ground where they she had stood.

Going down the initial slide she saw as her prisoner rolled and hit the walls, soon falling again as the slide changed directions, going back on itself, twisting turning she soon found them leveling out. Standing the girl grabbed one of the missing Genin's legs, dragging him away from the shoot, already a faint echoing of the creature walking down the chute came to her ears, _'I have a little time to find Naruto and get out of here!'_ she thought, emerging into a dark room, torches lighting the walls and a faint sound of running water.

Not too far off she could hear people yelling, apparently seeing her. There were nearly a dozen people; men, woman and a few children even! All of them were ragged and looked weary, underfed. In the middle of everything she was able to see two figures, Sasuke who was only now coming too his senses, and Naruto who was starting to stand up.

"Sauke-kun! Naruto!" she yelled, dropping the fire user and running over to the two of them, the people giving them a wide berth. "What happened? Is everything alright?"

"Hehe, yeah, I'm fine!" laughed Naruto, eyeing Urame evilly, "Just thought I would take a nap while you dealt with that scum!" Grinning at the boys antics she turned to Sasuke, who was likewise now starting to stand, a little more wobbly than Naruto, "But Sasuke here got his ass handed to him by a bucket of water!"

Glaring daggers at the goggled boy he stood up the rest of the way, "Let's see you get punched fifty feet down and drown in a river, dobe!" Turning to Sakura he started to ask what happened when the masked blob of black tendrils reached the bottom of the shoot.

"What the hell is _that?"_ yelled Naruto, watching as all the people began to run for the opposite wall, "My clone that went to get Sasuke was blasted away by that thing." He said, pointing at it.

"Naruto, grab Muda and keep him safe! Whatever it is it tried to kill me up top with a wind attack." Yelled the girl, grabbing the unconscious boy's leg and shoving it into Naruto's hands.

"Wind you say?" was all Sasuke said as he grinned, glad to get a little revenge on whatever it was that knocked him out. Making several seals he told them, "Then hit it with FIRE! Katon: Great fireball!" launching a single fire ball at his enemy.

Whatever it was it knew better than to try and take the hit, jumping over top of them all and instead going after the people on the other side, launching several wind attacks mid air at their backs as they tried to break down the single metal door on the far wall. The devastation was wholesale, crushing some, tearing apart others, sending a spray of blood up into the air and all over the walls.

Looking on Naruto just stared horrified at this thing, "Fire, right?" he asked a now stony faced Sasuke and a furious looking Sakura, both of whom nodded.

"**Katon:" **all three of them yelled at the same time, **"Grand Fireball Jutsu!"**

-four hours later

As the last of Naruto's clones dispelled itself images of dead bodies being covered in dirt filled his head once more. The boy himself was still covered in the stuff, letting Sasuke and Sakura wash up first. Kakashi had come and found them after Naruto's clone had reached him, just about the time that they were taking out the Wind Mask.

They had taken their time after that, practically daring anything that would pick a fight with them to try. All of them had been covered head to toe in blood, carrying bodies out of the cave while Naruto had clones digging holes for them. All in all only one child survived the initial onslaught, having his right arm blown off by that monsters attack, but before they could get him patched up even he bled out after going into shock.

Naruto had also buried Urame up to his neck in the ground, making sure that he watched as they buried every last one of the dead. Right now Kakashi was most likely digging him up so he could start interrogating him.

Sasuke was looking through a bingo book, thrown at him by Kakashi, trying to find the missing nin he had seen, having washed up first while Sakura had been talking to Kakashi about their battle.

Looking around he wondered what he should do. Sakura was washing, Sasuke was reading, and Kakashi was-

"Naruto." the man whispered, coming up behind the orange clad youngster, making him jump in surprise "Stay quiet and come with me."

Leading Naruto away from the others Kakashi started talking, "Ok, I'm going to need you to tell m some stuff. Sakura already told me about the Muda Bloodline and I have a clone back there interrogating him for more information, I need you to tell me of any further developments with your bloodlines, and if you picked up anything else since being with Anko."

"Ok, well, I didn't get any bloodlines from Anko, first off, and-" stopping he watched as the man pulled out a familiar orange book and started writing in it. "What the hell are you doing?" he asked confounded.

Looking up at the boy Kakashi had a single wide eye, "Oh, that's right, you haven't read one of Jiraiya's books yet, have you?" he asked the boy, quickly passing it over to the boy, "Here, since you have a Sharingan you should be able to see through the genjutsu seals he puts on all his books."

Frowning Naruto opened the book up, looking at the first page. It was as if he was reading two books at once, he could focus on one or the other, either badly written erotica or… "Sealing basics for the Evil Containment Seal? How did you manage to get your pervy novel to be like that?" he asked confused.

Sighing the scarecrow explained, "Jiraiya of the Sannin writes this series of books, making quite a bit of money off the actual erotica. However, seeing as he is a sealing master, he makes each book with a set of seals as a border. For Shinobi able to detect and dispel it, it reveals his written works on seals for all readers. That book, while still the first in the Icha-Icha series is actually a very advanced sealing text only sold in the Fire Country and, more importantly, Konoha. Halfway through the book though it is empty, leaving room for a person to make notes without them being seen as anything other than bad porn scenes." Reaching into his pouch he pulled out another book, identical to the one in his hands right now, "That's the first book in the series of sealing, feel free to read it and the notes I've taken inside of it… besides, the erotica isn't _that_ bad." The giggling fit that insured told Naruto how much the man really liked it.

Skimming through the pages he looked over them briefly, "Um, Kakashi-sensei? I already know most of this stuff." He said, earning a strange look from the man, "What?"

"_You_ know seals, Naruto?" he asked incredulously.

"Well, yeah!" he said, pocketing the book, "My new apartment that I found "_stole"_ had a bunch of scrolls in them on seals and seal maintenance. Well, seeing as the building is made up with seals on nearly every surface I had my clones start reading up on them, though it takes awhile for them to make it through a scroll on their own."

'_Hmm, this could prove interesting…' _"Naruto, why don't you use seals in battle or training then?" he asked, knowing that the first seals taught where combat seals such as exploding tags and sealing scrolls.

"eh? There Ok but seals just aren't my thing. Now the second I can learn how to seal away my enemies whole or store chakra into something, _then_ I might start using them!" he said excitedly.

"Yes, well the first is a highly forbidden technique and the second is considered S-rank when it comes to both difficulty and power. But we're getting off topic anyways, we'll talk more about seals later." Taking back his book he opened it up and started writing, "Ok, no Bloodline for Anko, only the rest of the population to go. What about the others, have you had any breakthroughs with them?"

"Yeah, I developed another split personality." He said wryly, "I call him, Mini-Anko!" getting a look from Kakashi he explained, telling him about the training he had to go through and how he thought it led to a new personality out of necessity.

"Hmm, that's very interesting Naruto. Well, I'll have to test your theory on Sakura." At this the boy cringed, hoping the girl didn't find out about it, "Well then, what about your Sharingan? You said you were doing a lot of sparring with Anko, did you get a second Tomoe?"

Taking off his Goggles he told the man, "No, when I looked this morning there was still only one, though maybe since the fight I got one, eh?"

"Yes." The man said, looking at the eye briefly before writing it down.

"Didn't think so. I really just- wha?" he asked confused, glad to have the goggles off.

"I said yes, You have developed a second Tomoe. Hmm, perhaps the eye only reacts to _actual_ battles, if not even the hardcore spars that Anko had you doing did the trick…" he started writing some more, "Well, congratulations are in order then, you are now at the same level a Sasuke is, though he had his like that since the battle at the bridge. Let's move on." He said, watching in amusement as Naruto pulled off his Hitai-ite and trying to polish enough to see an eye.

"Nothing else to report, though maybe my fire jutsu was bigger after getting that losers Fireproof bloodline. I really haven't had time to work with the Hyoton at all and I need to learn how to open the eight gates before we can test the Key thingy."

"Right… and the Jinton is more or less automatic." Writing down a few last words he stood up, telling Naruto to head back to camp.

Getting back to camp, after finding a stream and washing up, he found Sasuke still glued to Kakashi's bingo book, reading through each of the entries. Sakura meanwhile was running her hands through her now half inch long hair.

"You know, I can actually see why boys like their hair this short." She said as he walk closer, "Personally I don't mind it all myself. Makes me feel… _sporty!_"

Shaking his head he pulled out the Icha-Icha book and read started reading through seals, even though he had most of them down… the man certainly made these books more personal than those dusty old scrolls. "So, what kind of bet did you make with Kakashi anyways?" he asked, "And more importantly what didn't you win?" skimming over the next seal that he already knew by heart… _'Hmm, Fire sealing method?'_ that was a new one.

"Well he said it would be impossible for me to learn a medical jutsu without some help from a medi-nin. I personally didn't see what the big deal was so I challenged him, thinking I would get to see beneath his-" looking over at her teammate she froze in horror, his face half hidden in a Perverted book.

"Oh, I'm listening Sakura." He said without looking out of the interesting book. _'So many uses for that one… could make an automated defense or a landmine of some sort…'_

"NAR-U-TOOO!" She said menacingly, hitting him on the head as hard as she could, "What are you reading that _perverted_ book for!" she yelled. "You're as bad as Kakashi-sensei! Talking to a sweet and innocent lady while reading that smut."

"Please, I know for a fact that you would like it if you just looked at it!" meaning she would see the genjutsu and be able to break it easily… that's not what she heard though.

"DIE!"

Carrying his bleeding student back home on his back Kakashi tried to think of some other training he could try to put Naruto through for his bloodlines. _'What he needs is time to train on his own or just one on one with me. Unfortunately the latter is out of the question while I have the other two as well and if I truly want to follow the progress of Minato-sensei's bloodline then I need to be there. Not to mention the possibility of someone seeing him if he trains on his own…'_

Once inside the gate he addressed his students.

"Ok, you guys, we leave for Rai no Kuni in three days. Make sure you have all the equipment you need to get you there, including rain and cold coats. When you're in the valleys there it can rain for days on end while the mountains tend to be quite cold. Try to keep training to a minimum, you guys have worked hard and need to be at your best for the run there." And with that he Shunshined away.

Stretching his back out Naruto decided to go for a walk, _'It'll be good to just relax again… We've been training for a month straight and when we weren't training we've been on missions… my god! It's been nearly two months since I've had Ichiraku Ramen! Since before the Wave mission…'_ he was right, he had been so caught up with training he hadn't had a nice healthy bowl of ramen at all. Hell he had only gone out to eat twice, maybe three times since he had returned.

Walking towards the ramen shop he pulled out his wallet, a now bursting pouch of bills named Gama-chan. Even Naruto had been surprised by the amount of money they had earned from the Mission to Wave.

**Furasshubakku no Jutsu!**

_The three Genin had just finished their 'spar' with Kakashi on the first day of training. Naruto was nursing a few blisters from when Kakashi had set him on fire, Sasuke's face was a mess of bruises, and Sakura's face seemed to glow a vibrant red. Walking they all prepared to go home and sleep._

"_Oh, before you guys take off for the night." Said Kakashi, appearing in front of them in a cloud of smoke, "I just wanted to give you guys your pay for the Wave mission." Tossing each of them several thick wads of money._

_Sakura, who was the most coherent at the time decided to play spokesperson, "Um, Kakashi-sensei? These are all in thousands! From what I heard the village would get less than half of _one_ of these for a C-rank mission... less than a quarter… How much is here?" The other two boys just eyed their money, flicking through it once she said 'thousands.'_

"_Hmm, well, normally you would be right however the mission was bumped up a few rankings." Putting away his Icha-Icha, it being too dark to read after all._

"_Whadya mean a few Teme-sensei?" asked Naruto, painfully putting the wad of cash in his pocket._

"_Meaning it became an S rank mission that will be accredited to each of your files." Seeing them all go slack jawed he explained, "What, you think defeating one A rank missing Nin and his apprentice who had a bloodline, along with two Chuunin level missing nin, all of whom were in their natural fighting habitats, and saving a country from economic collapse and possible stopping one of the largest crime bosses outside of the Yakuza from gaining a foothold right outside of Hi no Kuni isn't worth an S ranking?" Watching them close their mouths and shake their heads he laughed while walking away._

**Furasshubakku- Kai**

He wasn't complaining though, he had a cool bloodline and a ton of money from all of that, not to mention how good it would look on his record. Stuff like that could get a Chuunin into the ANBU training programs. Hell, he wouldn't be surprised if Sasuke got drafted right after making the promotion.

Finally reaching his destination he walked right through the curtains, not realizing someone else was going the exact same on the other side, "Ichiraku, here I – wHoa!" slamming into the other person he felt their skin touch, followed by a very familiar sensation. For four seconds his miniature seizure claimed him, causing him to fall forward onto the person full force, only for him to be dragged back by two other hands on his own. That was very unfortunate for him.

The two people, whoever they were, both seemed to have bloodlines of their own, as before his initial spasm had stopped a new one started up, twice as intense as the last.

The last thing that passed through his mind as they put him down was a red eyed woman grabbing his jaw to look him in the face, causing him to seize up for a fourth time.


End file.
